Every four years, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development provides grants to local governments for improvements aimed at enhancement of low-income areas through the Community Development Block Grant Program, which is then administered through state organizations including the Northern Arizona Council of Governments.
In January of 2019, the Cottonwood City Council voted to apply to use $330,143 of CDBG funding on improvements on parks throughout the city.
At a meeting on Tuesday, Feb. 11, the Cottonwood City Council unanimously approved the first allocation of that funding up to $96,770 to Norris Design for an evaluation of the city’s parks and a master plan for park improvements. The city has worked with Norris Design previously on its Riverfront Park Master Plan, which was presented to the council in November.
“We’ve been working on this for, what, three years, four years, with Norris Design, and they’ve always done a very good job for us,” Councilman Doug Hulse, who has spent time on the Parks and Recreation Commission in addition to the City Council, said at the meeting. “I think we should continue on with them.”
According to Hezekiah Allen, the interim recreation center manager who has taken charge on much of the city’s future park plans, the city hopes to have the city parks master plan finished in about a year, at which point the city will be able to begin implementing the recommendations in park improvements.
“Most of the money from CDBG will be spent on projects,” Allen said. “Only $96,000 — less will be spent probably [on planning] — and then the rest of the $330,000 will be spent on projects. That way the
community can actually see the vision of the council and city leadership. We’re trying to get the cost down on the planning part of it, so we can get more boots on the grounds on the project for the community to see.”
According to Allen, Norris will look at the city’s existing parks and open space to evaluate how well they are serving the community, including factors like wayfinding, amenities, park programs and how much acreage of open space exists in Cottonwood, in order to provide city staff with understandings of what can be improved.
“The most important part of this entire process is the community engagement portion,” Allen said. “We’ll be hearing from the public about what they think is most important for the future. Hopefully the report will echo this.”
