Residents Shape Design of North Kirkwood Park

Kirkwood's is addressing a "shortcoming" of the community, according to director Murray Pounds. The shortcoming? The lack of parks in north Kirkwood.

"We have some great parks in our city, but few areas like that in the northern parts of the city," Pounds said at a public forum Thursday night at .

The purpose of the forum was to draw residents from the Avery Drive area to provide feedback to parks officials on what they'd like to see in the newly planned park at 221-225 Avery Drive. The city owns two lots on Avery Drive at the corner of North Harrison Avenue, which were specifically purchased for a park. The land is about 0.75 acres and has a small creek running on its northern boundary.

Approximately 30 residents turned out for the forum, which was led by pounds and representatives from Planning Design Studio (PDS), the contractor chosen by the city to design the new park. Residents were given maps of the land and photos, as well as basic information. They were then asked to join together in groups and list their priorities for the park.

Each group presented their ideas to the residents before they were displayed for all to see. Residents were given green stickers to mark which ideas and priorities they favored the most.

"It may not be the most scientific method, but it sure it effective," said Andrew Franke of PDS. Franke and PDS designed two other Kirkwood parks, and .

"We're just happy so many locals showed up for this," Franke said.

Pounds and Franke both said that they couldn't promise when construction would start, but that the earliest groundbreaking would take place in the summer of 2012.

"Walker Park, the entire process, took about three years," Pounds said. "So I stress patience. It's worth it to get involved now."

Almost every resident identified as being from the area directly surrounding the proposed park. Some of the most popular ideas included a basketball court and a small skate park.

Jeremy Salazar of Avery Court said he heavily favored an area for kids to skate, because there are plenty of boys in his neighborhood skating in the streets.

"We want this to be a place were kids can hang out as they grow," Salazar said. "A lot of the neighborhood kids skate in the streets on homemade rails, and it'd be nice if we could give them a safe place to have fun, somewhere we can trust."