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Community Corner

Residents Call for Better Direction for Kenning, Adams Parks

Other ideas from the Parks and Recreation Department's master plan workshop include installing more benches and finding better uses of parks during the winter.

Better maintenance and a better idea of where things are going with two city park spaces—that’s what members of city government and Birmingham residents want for their parks going into the next five years.

That consensus was reached Tuesday night at the ’ (DPS) , where around 35 community members gathered to discuss which directions the department should go in upcoming years.

The DPS has to update its master plan every five years to make it eligible for parks and recreation grants. “It’s just a way of trying to extract ideas,” DPS Director Lauren Wood said. “It’s like putting ideas into a strainer and sifting them through to see what works.”

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Creating master plans for and Adams Park, as well as providing better maintenance for fields and vacant grassy areas was the general consensus of the evening.

“There’s been a lot of development lately in parks like , and a lot of it has been good, but I think there are a lot of small parks that need renovations,” Heidi Geissbuhler said. “I think it’s pretty clear from everyone that showed up that Kenning Park is the next park that needs to be really looked at.”

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Kenning Park is located off Lincoln Avenue, next to and behind the . The park is a popular spot for baseball in the spring. Adams Park is an open green space adjacent to .

Other ideas introduced by participants include adding more benches and picnic tables, creating more walking paths, adding bathrooms, formulating a better policy for funding the parks and finding better and more creative uses for them during the winter.

To reach these conclusions, attendees were split into groups then asked to brainstorm among themselves. When participants presented their final ideas, Wood said they were great though some projects, such as changing the way things are done at Kenning Park, have been brought up in the past.

“I’m very encouraged,” Wood said. “I thought that we heard some very good comments. We had a good turnout and a lot of new faces, which is something that we were striving for this workshop.”

Birmingham resident Suzi Regan agreed.

“I thought it was a great workshop, really informative,” Regan said. “It is so great to see so many people so passionate about so many different things in regards to parks. It’s refreshing.”

Wade Trim, a civil engineering firm, will be aiding DPS in creating the master plan moving forward. Urban planner Leah Groya said a draft of the plan will be available for the public to view for 30 days in May. After that, there will be a public hearing on June 7 for any last-minute suggestions. In the interim, community members are welcome to let DPS know of any concerns.

The final draft of the five-year master plan will be presented to Birmingham City Commission on July 11 for their approval.

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