During the next several years, a downtown park in Greenwood will be remade into a destination with room for walking and outdoor activities, a new path for pedestrians and cyclists and a new road to help with traffic flow.
Renovating Old City Park, extending trails around Pleasant Creek and constructing a new road south of the Greenwood Public Library to connect Surina Way with Market Plaza are the next steps Greenwood has planned in its continued efforts to revitalize the downtown area and prepare for the future development of the 19-acre Greenwood Middle School, which the city bought last fall, Mayor Mark Myers said in his sixth annual State of the City address Thursday afternoon.
Myers highlighted progress the city made in 2016 and noted the work the city is doing to improve the downtown area, including the project to rebuild facades along with a city program created last fall to assist businesses along Main Street and Madison Avenue with making exterior renovations.
Old City Park renovations will include replacing Machledt Drive with a multi-purpose trail for pedestrians and bicyclists, demolishing a maintenance building to make way for a 34-car parking lot, building a trail connecting the park north to Main Street, constructing a terraced amphitheater and event lawn adding landscaping and making improvements to the creek bank.
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Click here to purchase photos from this galleryThe trails planned for the redesigned Old City Park will help connect key parts of the area as the city focuses on developing the downtown, he said.
When people are looking at where to live, the amenities a community has to offer are just as significant as their choices of employment, he said.
“If you think we are slowing down, you haven’t been paying attention,” Myers said.
The improvements, which are in the initial planning stages, are expected to cost $4 to $5 million, Greenwood Project Manager Kevin Stienmetz said. Part of the cost includes replacing a century-old sewer pipe underneath Machledt Drive.
The work will be funded jointly through the Greenwood Redevelopment Commission, stormwater board and parks board, Stienmetz said.
The new sidewalk-and tree-lined road connecting Surina Way and Market Plaza is expected to cost $2 to 2.5 million and will improve the flow of traffic as it will be connecting two dead-end streets, Stienmetz said.
The redevelopment commission will be funding the road through TIF district funds, he said. TIF districts collect property taxes in certain areas and funnel the money into special projects.
Work on park improvements will begin this year though some aspects of the project, such as the new road, will be delayed until after the city has use of the middle school after students and teachers move to the new middle school next fall, Myers said.
Myers envisions the Greenwood Middle School property on Madison Avenue as a future space for retail, offices, apartments and condominiums, but those developments are at least several years off. In 2018, the middle school will be the temporary home for the police department, city court and city clerk during a planned $2 to $2.5 million renovation of their building at 186 Surina Way, Myers said.
The 25-year-old building needs to be renovated so the police and court system can make better use of the space, as technology and police needs have changed over the past several decades, Greenwood Police Chief John Laut said.
The middle school would be demolished in 2019, with development beginning in 2020 at the earliest, Myers said.
“All the pieces are in place for a south side resurgence,” he said.
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At part of his vision for a revitalized downtown, Greenwood Mayor Mark Myers has proposed multi-million dollar renovations to Old City Park. Here’s a list of some of the changes.
- Machledt Drive will be converted to a path for pedestrians and bicyclists
- A trail will connect the park north to Main Street
- A maintenance building will be torn down and replaced with a 34-spot parking lot
- Terraced amphitheater and overlook near Pleasant Creek
- Creek bank and landscape improvements
- Event lawn south of the creek
- A new road connecting Market Plaza and Surina Way
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