By Hutton Marshall

Locals get a say in Hillcrest project

Every Sunday until April 26 at the Hillcrest Farmers Market, a special booth will allow visitors to create and suggest design elements for the “Pride Plaza” park project at the corner of Normal Street and University Avenue — the same location as the weekly farmers market near the Hillcrest Pride Flag.

The booth, run by the Hillcrest Business Association (HBA), will solicit input on exterior design elements for the space ahead of a semi-permanent mockup planned for June, where a portion of the intersection will be closed to traffic for months to replicate plans for a permanent park. Three renderings of the project space allow anyone to hand draw and suggest their own designs.

The Pride Plaza will span approximately 7,300 square feet, according to architect Michael Brennan, an HBA board member active on the project. He also said the plans will allow the space to swell as large as 34,000 square feet for special events like the Hillcrest Farmers Market.

“The different variations well ebb and flow from those extremes,” Brennan said.

The booth’s first Sunday in operation was March 23. According to HBA Executive Director Benjamin Nicholls, some of the suggestions included a sculpture garden, a “hammock garden” and a “happy hour dog park,” where a dog park would take over a portion of the space for designated hours each day, likely 5 – 8 p.m.

“There are certain things that have to go in there: bike lanes, car lanes, parking, but there’s a lot of other space to play around within that,” he said.

After the booth’s final Sunday on April 26, a design will be mocked up and presented, said Nicholls. After that, the HBA plans to use temporary design elements — likely paint and planters — to cordon off the area for several months to demonstrate how the plans would change pedestrian use and traffic flow. Brennan said more pedestrian space around the Pride Flag is sorely needed.

“It’s such a cool idea to kind of expand on what we’ve done at the Pride Flag, and it seems like every time they raise a different flag there, there’s a gathering that spills into the street,” Brennan said.

While the project’s budget won’t be known until the final design is produced in early summer, Nicholls estimated a minimum amount of $800,000. He said that while the HBA has done much of the organizing around the project thus far, other stakeholders will need to contribute resources.

“So we’re doing sort of the groundwork, but everybody’s going to have to come to the table pretty soon,” Nicholls said, mentioning the Uptown Community Parking District’s large funding reserves lying dormant. “There are very few projects in this city where one group does everything.”

He also said that certain design elements might open doors for other funding opportunities.

“Depending on what people want to do, we’ll free up different pots of money,” Nicholls said. “If there’s a storm water improvement piece of that park, then that will free up storm water money.”

Securing city support for the project will be imperative as well, which Nicholls and Brennan said is already underway. They said a meeting with key city officials earlier this year showed excitement for the development.

“A lot them were pretty enthusiastic to make this thing work and to kind of grease the skids to get the city approval and permitting process,” Brennan said. 

—Contact Hutton Marshall at [email protected].