City of Ashland passes new parks plan in face of objections to lake removal

The City of Ashland Board of Aldermen approved the new master parks plan at the regularly scheduled meeting on Tuesday, April 1st.
Several residents, most living within a close vicinity to the city park, showed up to express discontent with the plan’s removal of the existing lake.

One nearby park resident Krishna Fogle expressed to the board that she believes maintaining green spaces are vitally important to the community, and says the park holds sentimental value and history to many.

“My passion for bringing people closer to nature and preserving nature spaces is really the core of why I even brought this up in the first place,” and Fogle says she believes that there is more opposition to removing the lake that has not been properly communicated to the board.

Fogle says many park visitors do not use the planned amentities, such as the tennis courts and the playground, and that park spaces need to be balanced for senior folks who use the walking paths and who enjoy the undeveloped, natural environment. Fogle says she has spoken with several of her neighbors and park visitors who were “shocked” to hear of the plan’s removal of the lake.

The plan was presented to the public on Monday, Feb 24th after the Planning Design Studio prepared the design after taking resident input for several months last year, assessing the community survey results from Oct. 2024, recording resident input from during last year’s Fall Festival, and following discussions with city staff and the Parks and Recreation Board.

The overall cost of the entire park master plan as presented is ~8.5 million.

The future city park design makes improvements to existing amenities and adds new features. The preliminary plan noted below is an initial concept subject to change.

Highlights of the plan include:

• Removal of the existing lake and constructing a playground, splash pad, and pavilions in its place.
• Improvements to the electrical system, lighting, and drainage of the existing ballfield. PDS took the electrical needs of the Fall Festival into consideration, as it takes place in the area surrounding the ballfield and recommended more hook-ups and possible solar lighting on the trail.
• Enhanced dog park area with new fencing, agility features for the dogs, and a spray-off area to give dogs a quick rinse before exiting.
  Addition of nature walkway area in the NE area of the park, including a new walkway entrance to connect the park to the surrounding neighborhood.
• Construction of two tennis courts, and a multi-purpose court directly to the northeast of the existing ballfield; replacing existing tennis court area with parking lot.
• Improve the stormwater runoff mitigation through a detention area.
• Create a turn-around area on N. College St. for easier drop-off/entry/exit.

Timeline
City Administrator Kyle Michel says the city will first develop engineering plans over the next year for phase one, which he identified as the playground station and the stormwater detention improvements, within a 3–5-year window. Engineering plans will help the city determine actual costs of construction and how to best approach these projects. PDS also commented that the entirety of the project could easily take 10 years.

At the public plan presentation in February, one attendee questioned where the city will find the money to fund the project. Michel responded that in addition to the normal revenue structure, the city is looking at primarily grants such as the Land and Water Conservation Fund, and potentially voter-approved long-term debt. He adds that the existing Park/Stormwater Sales Tax can support roughly $1 million in long-term debt without overburdening operational costs. Michel also says this would not be a tax increase, but a voter approval to use the revenues for debt like the school bond issues that are no-tax increases.

Michel says the city will also look at alternate funding sources, such as fundraisers, corporate/community giving program, foundations & family trust donations, banner sponsorship and advertising enhancements at the ball field, grants, and says the city may begin charging the public for using the ballfield and renting the pavilions.

Michel also stated that the city can reduce costs by completing some of the work themselves instead of contracting out, such as removing the existing playground equipment. He says the city has also had great support from the community, such as the Ashland FFA, church groups, Boy Scouts, and the Ashland Garden Club, who all help with various park improvement projects such as assisting with landscaping and installing more recent features such as the gaga ball court.

Parks & Rec Chair Elizabeth Sobczak emphasized that the board wants to be thoughtful of taxpayer money and is open to community input on ways to save.