A growing number of recreational programs offered at the Grand Traverse County Civic Center are attracting more visitors to the East Front Street park. But that surge in traffic – though desirable for the county – comes with a catch for Parks and Recreation staff and commissioners: How can programming be coordinated, and the park layout designed, to ensure the expanding number of uses is harmonious?

The department will attempt to solve that problem with the help of Influence Design Forum (IDF), a local consulting firm granted a contract this month by the Parks and Recreation commission to go through a public planning process and create conceptual design options for the north end of the park. That section of the Civic Center – stretching roughly from the baseball diamonds to East Front Street – has experienced the heaviest surge in usage in recent years. In addition to summer baseball and softball games, the north end hosts the park’s concessions stand, skate park, Howe Arena and the newly renovated Easling Pool, the new Norte Wheelhouse, and half of the site’s walking/cycling track. A future dog park is also proposed for the northeast corner of the property, and Parks and Recreation Director Kristine Erickson is in talks with TC Community Garden about opening a new community garden in that area.

According to Erickson, the mix of uses is differing enough that user demographics “might not coexist” naturally without strategic forethought. The increased traffic is also heightening competition for Civic Center parking spaces. Erickson brought the IDF contract – estimated at $4,500 – to commissioners for approval to “see what we can do to serve everybody better…(and get) some kind of design plan in place for the north end.”

According to IDF’s proposal, the firm will evaluate uses and programming in the park’s north end to “determine if there is an opportunity to improve recreational opportunities,” meet with staff to evaluate programming challenges, evaluate safety concerns for existing and proposed park uses, develop up to two concept site plan alternatives for the property, and provide a refined master plan and programming recommendations that can be used “in decision-making for future changes to the park.” Input will also be sought from Civic Center users, neighbors, and other stakeholders – a process Erickson says will kick off soon.

Erickson hopes the new design concepts will help address traffic flow, landscaping, and other logistical elements to improve the park user experience. The section of the park behind the main Civic Center building stretching to the Native American Marker Tree “badly needs improvement,” Erickson says. “People park back there where they’re not supposed to for ball games, and with Norte there now, we need to make it safer. We also need to plant more trees, and would like to keep the Native American tree sacred and add some benches and educational signage there.” Erickson says the goal of the planning project is to strike an “artful" balance between maintaining the natural parkland with all the businesses that are run at the Civic Center.

In addition to approving the Civic Center planning project, Parks and Recreation commissioners this month also got their first look at the new design for a proposed makeover of Medalie Park near Logan’s Landing on South Airport Road. The design (pictured), created by consulting firm Prein&Newhof as part of the project to complete the Boardman Lake Trail loop, calls for numerous park improvements and amenity upgrades. Those include public restroom improvements, a universally accessible kayak launch, a universally accessible fishing deck with benches, shoreline and wetland habitat restoration, lighting improvements, a new pedestrian bridge, and the repaving and restriping of Medalie’s parking lots, which are in end-of-life condition. A new donor plaza commemorating the funders of the Boardman Lake Trail project is also planned.

However, funding for the improvements – the key components of which are estimated to cost at least $50,000 – is still up in the air, with the county recently turned down for grant monies it was counting on to complete the project. Erickson says her department will continue to seek other funding sources, as the department hopes to see the revitalization of Medalie Park occur simultaneously with the completion of the trail loop. “Ideally we’d like to have it coincide with the trail being finished, because Medalie would serve as a beautiful trailhead for all the users,” Erickson says. “But at this point, a lot of the pieces are still unknown."