A Fort Worth neighborhood is starting the new year with a bit of a face lift and promise of big changes.
The Hemphill area near Fort Worth’s Fire Station Community Center has a temporary skateboard park and bike path for children nearby. Those additions were built to allow residents a chance to try out possibilities for their forthcoming new park.
Near Southside, Inc, and their Envision Hemphill effort wanted to give those who live near the soon-to-be park a chance to decide exactly what would be found in it.
"We had several ideas and they voted and they wanted to make a dog park, they wanted a farmers market," Paul Paine said. "It could be flex spaces, maybe one weekend a month they could come out here and open up a farmers market."
Paine said the group wants to make sure the park is vibrant and functional for the families in the community.
“That input was important. We're not telling the community what they get. The community tells us what they want,” Paine said. “Then, working with the city's leadership, we are able to build that park and make this something they really want."
The land on Hemphill Street was purchased specifically because it is adjacent to Fort Worth’s Fire Station Community Center and Park.
Local
The latest news from around North Texas.
“It was a community center and park that was being used and under-utilized because of size. They didn’t really have all of the attributes that this community really wanted,” Paine said. “By getting this 1.3 acres, now we have the chance to turn this into something that really fulfills the needs of this community.”
Paine said this is only the first phase and hopes to see movement in the first few months of 2017.
"We hope that we will have a plan in the next three months, then we can work with the city,” Paine said. “Funding always slows you down a little bit, but we would like to see something started at least something in place within one year."
Paine explained it could take up to three years to complete the park.
The group is also listening to concerns about busy Hemphill Street itself.
"We have Hemphill here. It's a four-lane street. It's high-speed moving traffic,” Paine said. “Is there a way that we can design this better [and] make it safer for families to come out?”
