Parks department revising West Homewood, Patriot parks plans after high budget estimate

Homewood's Parks and Recreation Department is simplifying its improvement plans for West Homewood and Patriot parks after initial estimates exceeded the department's $30 million budget.

The plans that park board members and department employees had been working with included playground structures and a new pool at Patriot Park, including an aquatics building, slide, splash pad and other amenities. At West Homewood Park, the original plan was to reconfigure baseball, tennis and multipurpose facilities to make room for additional fields, a new gymnasium and a maintenance building with indoor batting cages and wrestling mats.

Department Supervisor Berkley Squires said B.L. Harbert International, which is managing the project, received estimates near the beginning of August putting the total cost of construction around $38-39 million. Estimates had been delayed while waiting for a redesign of two ballfields due to terrain and county approval of the pool design. Construction cost increases from when the parks department began studying this project in 2016 contributed to the unexpected price tag.

In response to this budget overage, Squires and Athletic Director Jakob Stephens said the department "pumped the brakes" and went back to its list of top priorities in order to trim some costs while still meeting the needs of athletic leagues' practices and games.

Squires said the plan for Patriot Park's pool will look much the same. The slide will be shorter in length and some elements of the aquatics building, such as garage-style pulldown doors, were removed. Stephens said they also had to remove a "sun shelf," which placed beach chairs in shallow water on one edge of the pool, as Jefferson County did not allow it. Other changes included relocation of some umbrellas and lifeguard chairs.

The pool building has been reduced in height and will match the senior center, Squires said, and the entire aquatic facility will use brick and shades of green and tan to be less intrusive to the neighborhood. Final details for new playground equipment and shade structures are still being worked out.

"It was a little more than what we wanted," Squires said of the first aquatics building design and how it fit into the neighborhood.

The changes at West Homewood Park are more extensive, but will result in more facilities staying in their current location. A six-acre property on the southeast corner of the park was planned to be the site of a basketball and volleyball gymnasium, new tennis courts, some bleacher seating and parking. Instead, it will remain in its current use as a multipurpose field, with updates to the lighting and restroom facilities.

On the northeast corner of the park, the existing tennis courts will remain instead of being replaced with two baseball/softball fields, though lighting and restrooms will again be upgraded. Three multipurpose fields were planned south of those tennis courts, but Squires said new designs include only two such fields, leaving a forested area untouched. In community meetings in May and June, several residents had asked the parks department to preserve this wooded area as natural habitat.

The biggest difference will be at the Mason building, which is next to the planned multipurpose fields site. Squires said the department had intended to renovate the building to provide maintenance offices, storage space, batting cages and wrestling mats, but estimated costs, including a total roof replacement around $1 million, made that unfeasible.

Instead, the Mason building will be totally torn down. In its place, the plans call for a smaller, two-court basketball and volleyball gymnasium with adjacent maintenance offices and a concessions area. The batting cages will be moved outdoors, though they will be covered.

"Unconditioned space is a huge savings," Squires said.

Much of the plans for the interior of the park, including upgrades to baseball/softball fields, will remain the same. A walking trail is still part of the plans, Stephens said.

"We're still getting what we originally designed, just in a different way," Squires said, emphasizing that the park redesign would still accommodate the variety of league sports played there.

Squires said Davis Architects, who have been the department's architects throughout the project so far, are still working on the final designs, which will lead to new cost estimates. However, the changes in the plan will make initial costs lower – particularly the reduction in the number of buildings and the associated water lines that would need to be constructed – as well as ongoing maintenance costs.

Since there will be less new construction and interference with existing fields, Squires said he expects the time to complete the project will also be reduced, leading to reduced budgets for labor.

Demolition on the West Homewood Park pool is already underway, and pre-bidding for the first phase, which is a set of baseball/softball fields near the current maintenance shop, is scheduled for late August. Squires said the rest of the bid dates will be decided once final designs are in place.

The final designs and revised budget and timeline are expected later this month, Squires and Stephens said.