$1.5 million renovation includes new tennis courts, picnic areas
and public bathrooms
Morgan Hill – A long-awaited overhaul of Community Park got started last week, promising new tennis courts and picnic areas come May.
Other improvements to the city’s 24-acre park on Edmundson Avenue include adding an outdoor basketball court, sprucing up existing picnic areas and installing a snack shack with a public bathroom.
The enhancements are part of the Community Park master plan drafted five years ago to correspond with plans for the Centennial Recreation Center opened in October.
Phase one of the master plan costs approximately $1.5 million.
“What they’re doing is upgrading Community Park to make it more useful to citizens of Morgan Hill, especially from an active recreation standpoint,” said Craig Van Keulen, a member of the Morgan Hill Parks and Recreation Commission. “This is the only large park Morgan Hill has … and certain activities can only take place in a large-park environment.”
Others say residents have complained of the park’s state of disrepair for years.
“There’s been a high demand in the community for more tennis courts,” said Marilyn Librers, also a member of the Parks and Recreation Commission. “And there have been major complaints about not having a public restroom at the park. By adding new amenities, we hope more people will use the park.”
Some of the work includes installing a water line for a fenced dog park that members of the community have been raising money to build.
With the glimmering Centennial Recreation Center next door, Van Keulen thinks the park’s enhancements will offer residents a complete “indoor-outdoor” experience.
Britton Middle School Athletic Director Jim Green said the city’s investment would pay off.
“While we’ve laid out a tremendous amount of money on public facilities (since 1999), I think it’s an important investment in our community that’s been long delayed,” Green said. “For years, we didn’t do anything.”
There are four phases in the Community Park master plan, but only phase one has been funded. Phase two, expected to be implemented in five years, will include an extended play area, a water stream play feature, multipurpose athletic fields and trail enhancements. Phase two improvements will include the removal of the park’s duck pond, a controversial topic to some residents who enjoy feeding the web-footed birds.
In general, officials think residents will be pleased with the park’s added features.
Deputy Director of Public Works Mori Struve said, “The amenities are what the community at large needed for it to become a community park.”
Most of Community Park was built when the city’s original sewage plant was on that site, said Public Works Director Jim Ashcraft. In the 1960s, Morgan Hill signed an agreement to create the South County Regional Wastewater Authority and share a common sewer plant in Gilroy.
Tony Burchyns covers Morgan Hill for The Times. Reach him at (408) 779-4106 ext. 201 or tb*******@*************es.com.
