Waterfront park construction plans delayed…. again

BY PRU SOWERS

KONK LIFE STAFF WRITER

 

Barely a month after half of the Key West City Commissioners predicted “significant progress” will be made on the proposed Truman Waterfront Park in 2015, they may be forced to eat those words.

 

City officials were hoping ground could be broken next month on road and walkway infrastructure construction, with completion of that phase of the 26-acre park completed by the end of the year. But permitting and deed approvals have already pushed that back.

 

“March seems a little ambitious,” Key West City Manager Jim Scholl said recently. “The state Department of Environmental Protection is working with the Navy to have all the real estate documents amended for land use control. All those administrative pieces have to be done before we can begin work, as well.”

 

City staffers now estimate construction on Phase I of the new waterfront park will begin late this summer. As for competing this phase by the end of 2015, Scholl was not optimistic.

 

“If we start late summer, early fall, it would be into 2016 before the infrastructure is done,” he said.

 

Phase I will cover approximately 80 percent of the total waterfront development project, which has been in the planning and discussion stages for over 15 years. Construction will include building site infrastructure such as roads, parking and utilities; landscaped passive recreation areas; a new, multi-use athletic field; a multipurpose center on the site of the proposed community center gym; and demolition of the existing Police Athletic league (PAL) building. In addition, the police stable, the Fort Zachary Taylor State Park entrance and the PAL program will be relocated.

 

But the good news, Scholl said, is that the complicated, many-faceted process of building a one-a-kind waterfront park in Key West is moving ahead, albeit slowly. Earlier this month, city commissioners approved a deal with the state recreation and parks division for a road easement that will allow the entrance into Ft. Zachary Taylor State Park to be moved closer to the waterfront and the Outer Mole Pier. And the architectural construction drawings that a Miami-based engineering firm has been working on for almost a year are nearing completion.

 

“We’ve got ninety percent of the design drawings done,” Scholl said. “This is the first time that the approved concept of the park is being put into engineered drawings to work off of. It’s the last major phase of design.”

 

Phase I will cost between $18 and $23 million to complete. So far, the city has set aside $20 million for the total project, which is estimated to cost approximately $30 million to complete. Phases II, III and IV will include demolishing and/or renovating an existing Navy building on the site for use as a museum and restaurant, building a 250-person amphitheater, and building the remaining portions of the community center.

 

Scholl said he “hates to borrow money for infrastructure” and will continue to apply for grants and other infrastructure funds that might be available to complete the park.

 

“It will be done in many, many phases. It will take a while,” he said.

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