POCKET PARKS

May 4, 2016 List Serv posting by Sarah O'Brien, Main Street Manager, Bastrop

Posting:

Greetings!

I have some questions for those of you with public plazas/pocket parks in your downtown. LaGrange and Brenham come right to mind, but I am sure there are others. We are trying again to convert a vacant lot downtown into a public gathering space and I need some assistance from those of you who have successfully done something like this.

  1. Is it privately or publically owned? If it is privately owned, ignore this message.
  2. Who handles the programming for the facility? Rentals, scheduling etc. If it is your Main Street Program/Downtown Organization/Parks Dept I would like to see how that process works.
  3. Who maintains the facility? Watering, planting, trash etc.
  4. What type of impact has this facility provided to your downtown? Increased traffic, additional retail fronts, etc.
  5. How was the project originally funded? (If you know.)
  6. Can you lead me in the right direction to some photos of your facility.
  7. Anything else I should be made aware of?

Thanks to everyone in advance. I promise to compile the results and will send to whomever else is interested. Have a great Wednesday!

Answers:

 

LA GRANGE

The pocket park here in La Grange is owned by the county and they maintain it. There is really no programming per say but when we use it for events we go through the county. Generally it is open to the public Monday - Saturday, 10 am- 5pm and Sundays from 12-5 pm. The county cleark's office opens it during the week and the owner of the Hallmark store next door opens it on Saturdays and Sundays. Also, our local telephone cooperative, Colorado Valley Communications, provides free wi-fi in the park. 

The park has contributed to our downtown environment in that it gives people a place to get online, read, meet with clients, etc. It also seems to serve as a quasi waiting area for our county clerk's office which is located next door.

The land was actually donated to the county by an individual and the county spent about $60,000 in renovations.

 

UVALDE

The City of Uvalde manages our plazas and parks.  They handle the maintenance and trash via our Parks & Recreation department.  These areas can be reserved through the city, but are typically only used by the city or by the main street program.  I currently use our main downtown plaza for our monthly community movie night, bi-monthly farmers market and our arts and craft show.  The city decorates the plazas for Christmas as well

 

The main plaza that is used is located at the intersection of Hwy 83 and Hwy 90 (the Crossroads of the US).  Having events in this area naturally draws in traffic.  People just passing through, always stop to see what is going on.  When we have an event, we post a banner at the intersecting corner.  This helps draw even greater attention to Main Street.  

 

BRENHAM

 

  1. Is it privately or publically owned? City-owned.  If it is privately owned, ignore this message.
  2. Who handles the programming for the facility? Rentals, scheduling etc. If it is your Main Street Program/Downtown Organization/Parks Dept I would like to see how that process works.  Our is a pocket park, and not really used in that way.  With display boards sharing local history, and the glass-covered cistern, the space doesn’t really lend itself to rental.
  3. Who maintains the facility? Watering, planting, trash etc.  City parks department.
  4. What type of impact has this facility provided to your downtown? Increased traffic, additional retail fronts, etc.  For us, the park is an attraction in itself, people are in there all the time.  It’s something for people TO DO, in addition to shopping downtown, and the history shared there is a big part of some of the programming and projects we have going.
  5. How was the project originally funded? (If you know.)  Main Street raised funds, 4B sales tax (in Brenham a huge percentage of our tax goes to parks), private contributions, sponsors and an LCRA grant.
  6. Can you lead me in the right direction to some photos of your facility.  http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=toubin+park+brenham&qpvt=toubin+park+brenham&qpvt=toubin+park+brenham&qpvt=toubin+park+brenham&FORM=IGRE&adlt=strict
  7. Anything else I should be made aware of?  Was pleased that Toubin Park was mentioned specifically by some developers looking at a project downtown.  The park was totally driven by Main Street and it’s one of my favorite projects, Sarah!!  Good luck with yours!!  Also, just from our experience, if we add another public space, like this or some kind of plaza, I would definitely put something in there for people to do or see.  Give folks a reason to spend time in there.  That’s what you want to see – people out and about, enjoying time in your downtown.

 

ROCKWALL

 

  1. Is it privately or publically owned? If it is privately owned, ignore this message. Publicly owned (was a one-way block converted to a Plaza)
  2. Who handles the programming for the facility? Rentals, scheduling etc. If it is your Main Street Program/Downtown Organization/Parks Dept I would like to see how that process works. Rentals will go through Main Street. then ultimately pass on to Parks. Non-profit groups can make application to use the space, however, access has to remain open to the public. I’m in the process of creating the application. 
  3. Who maintains the facility? Watering, planting, trash etc. Parks
  4. What type of impact has this facility provided to your downtown? Increased traffic, additional retail fronts, etc. Increased traffic, serves as the gathering space for downtown, still struggling a bit with getting people to understand there are shops located in the Plaza.  We’re developing directory signage.
  5. How was the project originally funded? (If you know.) Bond
  6. Can you lead me in the right direction to some photos of your facility. I’ve attached a few photos.
  7. Anything else I should be made aware of? So far, ours has been really well received. Our downtown had very limited green space, so it’s served us well. We program 42 live music events in that space May through September.