With the community’s help, the Southeast Park is on its way to
becoming a reality
– a reality residents in the area can be proud to see come to
fruition.
About 40 residents attended the second neighborhood park meeting
at the Veteran’s Memorial Building on Wednesday, along with a
landscape architect firm Bellinger Foster Steinmetz and Hollister
city officials.
With the community’s help, the Southeast Park is on its way to becoming a reality – a reality residents in the area can be proud to see come to fruition.
About 40 residents attended the second neighborhood park meeting at the Veteran’s Memorial Building on Wednesday, along with a landscape architect firm Bellinger Foster Steinmetz and Hollister city officials.
The intent of the meeting was to come to a consensus of a single concept that Bellinger Foster Steinmetz could present to the Parks and Recreation Commission, landscape architect Elke Lucking said.
After the last community meeting, which took place Sept. 24, the firm was able to take the group’s suggestions and desires and boil it down to two concepts for the design and layout of the park, she said.
The first concept involved a more naturalistic ambiance, which included a dry river bed running through the park and creating hills and valleys within it, Lucking said.
“The idea was to create an image somewhat representative of the natural California landscape,” Lucking said.
The second concept took a more urban approach, which included a more compact design that located all the design elements in a condensed activity hub, she said.
“Almost 100 percent of the group agreed on concept one,” Lucking said. “Everybody liked the more natural approach. They were actually quite happy with the design – they only made minor changes to it.”
The firm will now take the group’s decision and suggestions to the Parks and Recreation Commission in mid-November. If it is approved, it will go in front of the Hollister City Council to be voted on.
After that, it will go through the design development phase, in which the community will be involved for input again. At this time they will discuss actual details of the park, such as what types of benches, play equipment and other specifics they want in the park, she said.
The final stage will be the construction phase.
“Everybody was really excited,” she said. “They liked the concepts a lot and are ready to move forward.”
Group meetings such as this are relatively new and have become popular in the past couple years. They are a desired process to go through because it gives the designers specific input from the people who it is being designed for, Lucking said.
“If you’re a neighbor and you get what you want, that’s a great success feeling,” she said. “People like the sense of being able to participate.”
