Another chance for residents to weigh in on the future of Co-An Park.
Both the Town of Amherstburg and the Town of Essex are embarking on another round of public consultation, as part of the master plan for the park.
A public open house is being held this evening, from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m., at the McGregor Community Centre located at 9571 Walker Road.
Officials say Co-An Park is a unique space for both Amherstburg and Essex residents, and they want to ensure that the master plan aligns with the community's vision.
Residents will have the opportunity to review conceptual plans and give feedback to representatives working on the project.
Conceptual plans for the park, which is located at 11071 Concession Rd 11 in McGregor, were developed based on comments from the first public meeting.
Jake Morassut, the Director of Community Services in Essex, says they've been putting together the plan based on the feedback received through the public consultation and surveys from last year.
"To see how we can formulate the park, and what type of layout we can do based on the public feedback that we had," he continued. "We're presenting what we believe is the best option for the park and we want to get secondary public feedback on the design plan now, so that we can solidify it and start working on the plan."
There is one design that will be presented, which officials from both towns believe is the best, which includes amenities like multi-use tennis and pickleball courts, basketball court, potential for adding a soccer field, having existing baseball trails and dugouts optimized, along with a section of the park dedicated to any future amenities.
Due to the fact that both municipalities are involved, Morassut says they're focused on lots of public feedback to make sure residents have their say on what the future should look like for the park.
"Amherstburg has been great to work with and we've had a lot of collaboration and meetings to make sure we're getting to where we're at, but we keep going back to the surveys and public feedback we've received. We want to make sure that the public is really driving what we're doing for this process. We're having this meeting this evening so that anyone interested can come out and provide additional feedback. Then we'll take that feedback back to the table, see if there's any tweaks or amendments that we need to make, and continue to go from there."
He says eventually the plans will get back in front of both councils, where it will be officially presented for adoption to serve as a long-term vision to pave the path for the future.
In terms of how long that process might be, Morassut says pending no major changes and the public feedback being positive it could be a quick turnaround.
"In this year's budget for the Town of Essex, we do have $200,000 put forward towards a playground or some sort of similar amenity to be put in Co-An Park. That's something that we could work towards potentially this year. We do know that Amherstburg has also put in funding, but we want to make sure that before we do anything in terms of our budgets for this year, that we do have the public feedback to drive what amenity we need in that park," he said.
After the open house, the conceptual plans will also be available on the project website.
Morassut says they're encouraging people to continue sharing their thoughts on the plans through an online survey, which will be available from March 27 to April 23.