Excerpts from an Article in the Naples Daily news by Greg Stanley
Another park in Golden Gate Estates inching closer to reality
Crews hope to start work this fall on a long-promised and highly anticipated regional park in Golden Gate Estates.
They'll start by planting and seeding four soccer fields on Collier County's sprawling land just east of the fairgrounds off Immokalee and Oil Well roads, said Barry Williams, Collier County parks director.
The Big Corkscrew Island Regional Park will be the largest in the area after it's built out over the next five years.
Nearby parents, grandparents and homeowners — many of whom thought construction was still years away — are eager to see the work start.
"I'm ready to get a shovel and help them right now," said Annette Kniola, a self-described sports mom with four sons who has lived in Golden Gate Estates for eight years.
"We're 11 miles from the closest park and sometimes its longer than that in order to play baseball or softball," Kniola said. "That's a lot of running around and this is extremely needed."
Parks are scarce on the northeast side of the county.
Estates residents have the Max Hasse Community Park, with its two baseball diamonds and fitness center, located near the western edge of the community off Golden Gate Boulevard.
But the area doesn't have the large community centers, pools or Little League fields that can be found elsewhere in the county. The neighborhood was also designed without any corner parks or playgrounds, said Mary Sholtz, who has lived in Golden Gate Estates for 17 years.
Sholtz hopes that once the soccer fields are up, the county will build a playground for the new park.
"It's been frustrating because it felt like the county was leaving us behind," Sholtz said. "Parks and funding has been going to East Naples or North Naples. But I'm really hopeful that we can get a playground where I could take my granddaughter."
Major projects like building the Big Corkscrew Island park are prioritized by need, growth and population, Williams said.
With several high-priority plans fully funded or close to wrapping up — including the Gordon River Greenway expansion behind the Naples Zoo and a new community center for the Eagles Lake Community Park in East Naples — the Big Corkscrew Island Regional
Park is now at the top of the list, he said.
Getting the full park built is just a matter of waiting for enough impact fee revenue from new housing construction, said Commissioner Tim Nance, who represents the area.
"It always seems like it's the one that's next in line," Nance said. "We are the last county district without a regional park and this is going to be one of the highest priorities for our residents out there."
Because the department relies heavily on impact fees, plans for the park were set back by the collapse of the housing market in 2008.
But new construction is drastically up this year.
As of May, the county has raised $3.6 million in park impact fees from new housing construction. That's more than the $2.5 million the county raised in all of 2008 and $2.2 million in 2009. And it's on track to top the $6.6 million in park impact fees raised last year.
Hopes were high for the regional park in late 2012, when county officials celebrated a sort of false start.
The parks department briefly opened a 90-acre man-made lake at the site to the public. But the lake was hard to access and was never cleared of snakes, alligators and weeds. It was quietly fenced it off soon after it opened.
Now there's talk of filling in a portion of the shallow water to make room for more soccer or baseball fields, Williams said.
"We could keep that lake as a fishing spot," Williams said. "But one of our biggest issues that we've identified is that we need more athletic fields in Collier County,"
The regional park will be 60 acres if the lake is left alone and would jump to 105 acres if half of the lake is filled in.
After the soccer fields and a lighted parking lot are built this year, officials will consider adding baseball diamonds, a disc golf course and a dog park, as well as basketball, tennis, racquetball and pickle ball courts. This list was from the original 2006 plans.
Some changes have or will be made, Collier County Parks and Recreation is turning to the tech-savvy public to garner input on the county’s newest regional park.
Big Corkscrew Island Regional Park, located at 825 39th Ave. NE in Golden Gate Estates, was designed in 2006 and then put on hold during the economic downturn when the county did not have the funds to take on large capital projects. As the economy rebounds, Parks and Recreation is once again gearing up to deliver the long-awaited park.
But one question remains: Does the park plan developed in 2006 meet the needs and expectations of the community today?
To get the answer, Collier Parks and Recreation has unveiled a crowdsourcing website, which will allow those interested in giving feedback to register and create a log-in, submit ideas about the park, vote for or against submitted ideas, and post comments.
The department hopes that a wide variety of citizens, including those who might be disinclined or unable to attend public meetings about the new park, will use the site to let their voices be heard.
“We hope to create real dialog that produces input we can use to make Big Corkscrew Island Regional park the best it can be,” said Parks and Recreation Director Barry Williams.
Final plans for the park are still up in the air, Williams said. But the final tab is expected to be about $14 million.
The parks department has set aside $2.8 million of the impact fees for the new park and will seek another $4.5 million in tax revenue from county commissioners this summer, Williams said. The park new park plans go the county board of commissioners in February.
When the crowd sourcing web site closed the top 6 elements requested by the citizens of Collier County were: Soccer/Multipurpose Fields, Pathways/Jogging Trails, plenty of shade, Community Center, Playground, POOL.
Sounds good to me.