With its goal to market several local parks, the Jefferson City Parks and Recreation Commission held a special meeting Monday morning to lay out design ideas for Ellis-Porter Riverside and McClung parks.
Commissioners met with representatives from The Architects Alliance, with most of their discussion focusing on improvements to Ellis-Porter Riverside Park, at 300 Ellis-Porter Drive. With approximately $3 million set aside for renovations at the park, the current scope includes a new community amphitheater, community garden, caretaker's residence renovation, updated baseball fields and security, lighting and signage upgrades.
The No. 1 priority for that park, commissioners said, is a new amphitheater. The parks master plan - which outlines parks improvements over two decades - recommends demolishing the current amphitheater and building a new one in the same location, but rotated.
"I don't know what makes a good amphitheater or bad amphitheater," commissioner Bill Plank said. "I just know our's needs a lot of work."
The current amphitheater can hold about 1,000 people, Assistant Parks Director JJ Gates said. Commissioners said they would like to see an amphitheater that holds more, potentially 1,500 or 2,000 people.
If the commission wants to create an amphitheater that hosts movies, plays and concerts, it needs to ensure it "programs for the event," said Todd Spalding, Jefferson City Parks, Recreation and Forestry Department director. Without having attractive amenities, he added, actors and performers will not want to do shows at the amphitheater.
"We want to have plays there, (and) we want to have some middle to low headline concerts," Spalding said. "You're not going to get those without some kind of covered area, costume area, restrooms. If we want to have movies out there four or five times a year, we can do that. But if you want to do these things, we've got to provide amenities (for) the actors, the performers."
A new amphitheater that attracts more people will call for more parking, Spalding added. The parks master plan suggests rotating the three baseball fields to potentially provide more parking.
While the parks master plan calls for rotating the fields, commissioners said this could be cost-prohibited. If rotating the fields ends up not being the best option, commission President Brad Bates said, he suggested some general improvements to the fields, such as repairing the screens and fencing.
To attract more people to the park, Spalding suggested placing a community garden behind the caretaker's cottage. Commissioners also plan to renovate the lower level of the caretaker's cottage.
People could rent the space for events or photos, especially since the area would overlook the Missouri River.
"There's a lot of cutting edge places that are doing community gardens and formal gardens," Spalding said. "We need something that is unique and people want to rent and go to and take pictures. We don't have that."
Other improvements to Ellis-Porter Riverside Park that are suggested in the master plan, but are not currently in the $3 million scope, include a hilltop aquatics center, new multi-purpose field and a farmer's market.
Along with improvements to Ellis-Porter Riverside Park, commissioners plan to invest $1.3 million in improvements to McClung Park, 930 McClung Park Drive. This includes making renovations to the indoor and outdoor pavilions and improvements to security, lighting and signage.
The indoor pavilion is a "gem" that is rented frequently but lacks modern updates, Plank said.
"It is straight out of the 1960s," he said. "It needs a lot of renovations."
Those renovations should not take away from the flexibility and functionality of the pavilion, he added.
Other items suggested in the master plan but are outside of the $1.3 million scope currently include a viewing tower, horseshoe competition complex, and circular lawn and new pavilions at the lower meadow.
Last week, the commission voted to move forward with pursuing a contract with The Architects Alliance to work on McClung and Ellis-Porter Riverside parks.
The commission listed Community, McClung and Ellis-Porter Riverside parks as its top three priorities from the master plan.