Cumming City Park soon will sport a new look. During their regular monthly meeting Tuesday night, city leaders signed off on a preliminary architectural plan for improvements. Greg Little, director of the city’s recreation and parks department, said the project will give the park, which is several decades old, a much needed face-lift.“We’re completely renovating City Park,” he said. The proposed changes would include removing the old swimming pool and creating a new multi-purpose building that would house offices currently located across the street in an old church building, as well as several rooms for activities such as dance and exercise classes. Other improvements include the addition of a kids’ splash pad area, an outdoor amphitheater and new playground and “tot lot” areas. Parking would be added throughout, along with a boardwalk nature observation area.“We’ve been working with Paul Hamby of Paul Hamby Architecture & Design on a conceptual design for the renovation of Cumming City Park,” Little told the councilmen. “What you have tonight is what we’ve come up with as a footprint for the property and how we would conceivably like to develop it.” Funding for the project came through an intergovernmental agreement with Forsyth County. The city agreed to provide the county with $5.3 million that it is entitled to from current 1-cent sales tax revenue for two new parking decks for the new county courthouse. In exchange, the county agreed to give the county $4 million for parks and recreation improvements. Little said the next step will be to develop a cost analysis.“Now that we’ve got permission to proceed with this, they will put the cost analysis team together on it,” he said. “Once we start getting the cost analysis done, we should then be able to put a timeline together.” According to Little, other steps in the process will include coming up with a definitive design for the multi-purpose building and detailing the individual areas.“We’ll work on the building, what we’re going to include, not include,” he said. “That will be our next step to develop … and see how that fits in with our budget.” Mayor H. Ford Gravitt praised Little, his staff and the architectural team for the design.“I think you done a great job on this and I think it’s something the community will be very, very proud of,” he said.
Cumming City Park soon will sport a new look. During their regular monthly meeting Tuesday night, city leaders signed off on a preliminary architectural plan for improvements. Greg Little, director of the city’s recreation and parks department, said the project will give the park, which is several decades old, a much needed face-lift.“We’re completely renovating City Park,” he said. The proposed changes would include removing the old swimming pool and creating a new multi-purpose building that would house offices currently located across the street in an old church building, as well as several rooms for activities such as dance and exercise classes. Other improvements include the addition of a kids’ splash pad area, an outdoor amphitheater and new playground and “tot lot” areas. Parking would be added throughout, along with a boardwalk nature observation area.“We’ve been working with Paul Hamby of Paul Hamby Architecture & Design on a conceptual design for the renovation of Cumming City Park,” Little told the councilmen. “What you have tonight is what we’ve come up with as a footprint for the property and how we would conceivably like to develop it.” Funding for the project came through an intergovernmental agreement with Forsyth County. The city agreed to provide the county with $5.3 million that it is entitled to from current 1-cent sales tax revenue for two new parking decks for the new county courthouse. In exchange, the county agreed to give the county $4 million for parks and recreation improvements. Little said the next step will be to develop a cost analysis.“Now that we’ve got permission to proceed with this, they will put the cost analysis team together on it,” he said. “Once we start getting the cost analysis done, we should then be able to put a timeline together.” According to Little, other steps in the process will include coming up with a definitive design for the multi-purpose building and detailing the individual areas.“We’ll work on the building, what we’re going to include, not include,” he said. “That will be our next step to develop … and see how that fits in with our budget.” Mayor H. Ford Gravitt praised Little, his staff and the architectural team for the design.“I think you done a great job on this and I think it’s something the community will be very, very proud of,” he said.