Milton Asks Residents to Help Plan the City's Parks, Trails
Two meetings after the holidays gear up a process that started with a survey of every resident last year.
Milton residents are needed to help plan the city's parks and trails. Meetings are begin scheduled Nov. 29 and 30 to kick off the city's Parks and Recreation planning process, said John Rebar, director of the department.
- Nov. 29, 7 p.m.: Comprehensive Parks and Recreation Master Plan–Lays out the timeline and expectations for all current and future department activities, including building recreation areas and establishing programs in them.
- Nov. 30, 7 p.m.: Trail Plan update, which seeks to establish a system of pedestrian trails linking neighborhoods and public facilities.
Both meetings will take place in City Council Chambers at Milton's City Hall.
"This planning process is a must if Milton's residents are to have the parks, programs and green spaces they want very badly," said Rebar.
Rebar said on Thursday, Nov. 17 the department held a series of focus meetings, including one with the Crabapple Communication Association, which he said were "really an opportunity for our stakholders, focus groups to sit down and speak directly to the consultants."
These meetings are in addition to the public meeting scheduled after the Thanksgiving holiday.
"They were just an opportunity for conversation, dialog on what their ideas are on parks," Rebar said.
The Parks and Recreation Needs Assessment Survey, which was mailed to every Milton resident last year, told planners Milton needs more public events, trails and open space for passive recreation and field space for organized recreation programs, said Rebar. This is the next step in that process - planning the spaces that will make those desires a reality.
"At the completion of this process in February, we will have what we need to look at funding and other options to get these plans built," he said. "We are well on our way to providing what our residents have said they want, and we need them to be part of this process so we give it to them in the right places, at the right cost and at the right time."
There will be additional workshops Dec. 14 and 15 in which residents will be asked to help plan the currently passive 200-acre Birmingham Park and a final public input session Jan. 18, 2012.
The Comprehensive Master Plan, which will include both the Trail Plan update and Birmingham Park Master Plan as components, will be delivered to City Council in early February 2012 by project consultants Moreland Altobelli Associates.
In This article
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Milton City Hall
13000 Deerfield Pky, Alpharetta, GA (Ste 107) -
Birmingham Park
750 Hickory Flat Rd, Milton, GA
Julie Hogg
10:36 am on Sunday, November 20, 2011
When searching for ideas please consider looking to one of the most impressive park systems in the metro: city of Suwanee. Their park system includes a 10 acre Town Center Park in front of City Hall that features a town green and a 1000 seat outdoor amphitheatre. Down the road is the Suwanee Creek Park - an 85 acre passive park and is the trailhead for Suwanee Creek Greenway. And my personal favorite, Sims Lake Park, is 62 acres with a beautiful 7 acre lake, walking trail and play meadows.
Patti Silva
1:10 pm on Sunday, November 20, 2011
Please do not demolish the Crabapple Community Center as planned by the Milton Parks and Recreation Department. For so many reasons. Take the opportunity to build community by connecting people; youth and seniors, natives and relos, the city and it's residents. We CAN build something more lasting and much more beautiful than a "pocket park" as planned. The City has spent over $100K on renovating the Bethwell Community House in a residential area. The City is about to spend over $200K on renovating The Hopewell House. City Council, give us a chance to raise the funds to make this building beautiful and a place where people can come together at the Crabapple Crossroads. By destroying this building from the 1940's built by Fulton County for the area, the city may just do just that with the native folks of the area. There are many fond memories inside those walls. And besides, once you tear it down, it is gone forever and we cannot go back. Save the idea of a pocket park for another spot. And imagine the possibilities... by saving the Crabapple Community Center now.
Travis Allen
8:14 am on Monday, November 21, 2011
This building, however dull, boring, and lifeless it may appear, is potentially "historic" or at the very least would be a "contributing structure" in the potential "Crabapple Historic District"
If the city demolishes it without allowing the HPC due diligence in researching the building, then they might as well throw out the Historic Preservation Ordinance, disband the HPC, and just bulldoze everything...
Julie Hogg
8:58 am on Monday, November 21, 2011
The building IS historic. Known in more recent decades as the Crabapple Club House, in earlier times it was used as a school but mostly as a local cannery. People had a lot of canning to do from off their farms up here in Crabapple back in the days of farming and cotton. There are any number of people in the Alpharetta Historical Society and just area residents, who can tell you more.
Travis Allen
9:17 am on Monday, November 21, 2011
Thanks Julie, I appreciate your sentiment...but, as the Chairperson of the Milton Historic Preservation Commission, I prefer that we not call anything in Milton "Historic" until the HPC has nominated it as such with subsequent approval by Milton City Council.
I do agree with you that it should be historic, and we're in the process of working on a Crabapple Historic District currently.