Sunday, August 24, 2008

Update

The following is a copy of an email I sent to everyone who signed my petition for the community built wooden playground:

You are receiving this email because you signed my petition to show support for building a wooden playground like Kid’s Kastle in Flower Mound. If you do not want to receive future emails about this subject then please just let me know.
 
I just wanted to give you all an update on this project. The Undeveloped Land Subcommittee (a subcommittee of the Parks, Arts, and Library Services Board) has been working on plans to develop a piece of land east of the new Community Activity Center on Gerault, west of Bakersfield Park, north of Spinks Road, and south of Baker’s Branch subdivision. They have had several meetings and public hearings over the last 6 months or so at which I’ve made presentations about the need for this playground as well as made comments on their developing plans along the way. This playground idea fit in beautifully with their overall plans for the land and the subcommittee has been supportive of the idea from the beginning. Therefore, the playground was integrated into the subcommittee’s concept drawings for the land early on. However, their concept drawings for the land had to be approved by the town’s PALS Board, Planning and Zoning Commission, and then finally Town Council before any plans could actually be finalized. I was able to attend the PALS Board and Town Council meetings in which I presented the need for this playground in our area and showed your support for the idea through the petition. I’m happy to say that the final step, Town Council’s approval, took place last week!! So if all goes as planned, Flower Mound will be getting an awesome new wooden all-inclusive playground in the future.
 
I’m very excited about the plans for this piece of land and wish that they could start construction tomorrow. However, it will take some time before we actually see it come to fruition. The land is completely undeveloped at this time. Completion of Spinks Road east to 121 and completion of Garden Ridge south to Spinks will need to be completed first. Then construction vehicles will have better access to the park land to begin their work. The town’s plan for this land is just incredible! They plan to create a new playground, botanical garden, amphitheater, duck pond, conservation area, and open play areas and picnic areas while also working with the land’s features, natural landscapes, and trees to maintain its natural state with minimal need to remove trees or impact its inherent beauty. Below is a link to one of the most recent concept drawings for the land:

What an awesome place to bring our children outdoors to play! If you have any questions about the plans, please let me know and I’ll explain it as best as I can. By the way, the dog park on this plan was not approved last week but that piece of the land will remain undeveloped for potential future development of a dog park.
 

Now that the concept drawing has been approved, the Undeveloped Land Subcommittee and architects will begin creating more detailed schematics of what the playground will actually look like. A wooden playground like what we’ve seen in surrounding communities will cost a lot of money and resources to build. Both Kid’s Kastle in Highland Village and Kid’s Country in Coppell were built with financial donations as well as volunteer hours from local individuals and businesses. I know that Flower Mound residents will be excited to hear about this addition to our town and I know we won’t have any problem bringing the community together to work on such an awesome project. But I need your help for this next important step. If you have any interest in working on the fundraising piece of this project to reach out to individuals and businesses to gain their support and contributions, please let me know. This is a huge project and I can’t do it alone. But together we can make this incredible dre am come true for the children in our area.

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