OCEAN CITY – With the deeds in hand, Ocean City officials and staff are beginning discussions on the redevelopment of bayside park land, starting with how to incorporate the proposed design into the upcoming final phase of St. Louis Ave. reconstruction project.
After many years, the Town of Ocean City recently received the deeds to the Downtown Recreation Complex, also referred to as the Bayside Park between 3rd and 4th streets from Philadelphia Ave. to the bay, from Worcester County that will allow it to move forward with the renovation and expansion of the park and Ocean Bowl Skate Park.
The Downtown Recreation Complex currently houses basketball courts, ball fields, a skateboard bowl and half-pipe; playground equipment; and an area for fishing in the bay.
Back in 2008, the designs of the renovation and expansion of the complex included a prominent entranceway at the westernmost portion of the park. The entrance will be similar in appearance to the Boardwalk archway at North Division St. aiming to have the entranceway seen from the Route 50 Bridge and the bay.
According to the plans six years ago, the basketball courts would be reconfigured. The plans originally called for the courts to be shortened to 74 feet in length to make room for a walkway that will span the entirety of the park but were later expanded to 82 feet long, which is the same length as a standard high school court.
According to the Town of Ocean City’s Capital Improvement Plan 2014-2018, the renovation of the Ocean Bowl Skate Park and expansion of new skate park facilities are based on designs developed by the skate park design consultant in FY 2006/2007.
The skate park was last re-built in 1998. The design firm of Wally Hollyday Design had been contracted by the town to prepare plans for a 17,000-square-foot expansion with additional equipment and furnishings.
During Tuesday afternoon’s Recreation and Parks Commission meeting, council members sat down with the Recreation and Parks, Public Works and Engineering Department to begin preliminary discussions on the Bayside Park development.
“We will eventually have to get some sort of timeline from council as far as what sort of direction you want us to take to move forward in tweaking the design that we have for the Bayside Park, but the thing that needs immediate attention is the fact that Public Works is going to be moving forward with St. Louis Ave. project starting in October potentially, and the thought process would be to move forward and redevelop St. Louis Ave. as the current design is proposed, so that we wouldn’t have to double the work,” Recreation and Parks Director Susan Petito said.
The reconstruction of St. Louis Ave. is being conducted in three phases. The first phase, 17th to 10th streets, and the second phase, 10th St. to 4th streets, have been completed. The final phase, 4th to North Division streets, will begin this fall.
According to City Engineer Terry McGean, the Bayside Park design proposes narrowing St. Louis Ave. down to 30 feet, removing parking, raising the crosswalk and widening sidewalks.
“As we redevelop St. Louis Ave. from 4th to the bridge [N. Division Street], if you wish us to do this one block between 4th and 3rd to match this plan we are willing to do so, we just need some direction. Otherwise, we are going to put St. Louis back just the way we have done all the other blocks,” Public Works Director Hal Adkins said.
According to Adkins, the current plan for the St. Louis Ave. project between 4th and 3rd streets compared to the Bayside Park design that includes new sidewalks, new brick pavers, elevation of the road with an elevated crosswalk and narrowing the road, which is a substantial reduction in hot-mix costs, totals a $13,000 increase in costs.
“The scope of our Phase III St. Louis Ave. we have no work to be done on 4th Street from St. Louis to the bay but 3rd Street is falling apart,” Adkins said. “We are totally reconstructing 3rd Street from St. Louis to the bay, so again it raises the question do you want us to put 3rd Street back in accordance with your plan that will push the sidewalk to the north and create head-in parking, or put 3rd Street back the way it is but with a base hot-mix, not a top-coat, so we aren’t throwing money away at a later date. If you want us to go back with the full-blown plan, including head-in parking now, we are looking at about $80,000 above and beyond what we had budgeted.”
Councilman Dennis Dare interjected the whole block needs to be rethought, especially with the addition of the tall ship docking in that area.
“One of the things we may want to consider, much like Sunset Park where we put restrooms in, so now when we have functions there we have restrooms and not port-a-potties. We have very limited restrooms at the Skate Bowl but that is not applicable for the addition to the park,” Dare said. “I suggest that we keep the improvements along 3rd to a minimum for now until we really decide what we want to do, so we don’t back ourselves into any corners.”
Dare made a motion to forward a favorable recommendation to the full council to incorporate the Bayside Park design into the St. Louis redevelopment project between 3rd and 4th streets and St. Louis Ave. to the bay on 3rd Street. The commission voted unanimously to approve.