Plans for what will be Long Branch’s premier park on Long Branch Avenue were unveiled last week.
The $3.5 million Manahassett Creek Park will be an active park, with athletic fields, a walking path and a new recreation center.
The park will be located on a 16.4-acre tract, and construction is anticipated to begin this spring, according to Director of Community and Economic Development Jacob L. Jones.
“You have an open tract of land that will benefit the city for generations to come,” Jones said in an interview last week. “I think you are going to see an overwhelming appreciation for this park once completed.
“It might even become the landmark for the city. It will be a gem for generations to come,” he said.
Jones, along with representatives from project engineer D.W. Smith Associates of Farmingdale, presented the final design plans for the park at the Sept. 11 City Council workshop meeting.
The park is bordered to the west by Narragansett Avenue, to the east by Long Branch Avenue, to the south by Naberal Avenue, and to the north by Bay Avenue, Jones said.
Plans call for two high-school-size soccer fields, middle-school soccer fields, a senior-league baseball field, a football field, a tournament-size softball field, Little League fields, four tennis courts, two basketball courts, a putting green area, a play area for children and an exercise/running track.
A 1,600- to 2,000-square-foot recreation building with a meeting space, concession stand, an outside sitting area with a roof and storage areas are also planned for the site.
There will also be security lighting, a buffer area between the park and the surrounding neighborhood as well as two parking lots with ample parking spaces, Jones said.
“There will be 110 to 125 parking spots in two parking lots located at the north and east of the park,” Jones said. “It more than accommodates the requirements of the city’s ordinances and zones.”
The park will be constructed in a single phase with tentative plans for possible improvements and upgrades to be made in the future, Jones said.
“We hope to complete the basic plan,” Jones said. “We are trying to get all the essential elements and components into this now.
“We might, in later years, make other improvements and upgrades, such as improving the recreation complex that is already located on Bay Avenue.
“We are planning on working on [Bay Avenue] to better connect that building to the new park area, and in future plans we hope to address further concerns,” he said.
Approximately $1.7 million for the park has been generated from several sources, according to Jones, including state funding from the Department of Community Affairs and the Green Acres Program, the Monmouth County Open Space Recreation Program and private funds from the Long Branch Community Center organization, according to Jones.
“We hope the city will bond for $1.5 to $2 million” in order to obtain the needed funding to complete the project, Jones said
Once construction begins, Jones said he expects the park to be complete within six to 18 months.
“We hope to start the process this fall,” Jones said. “Once [the project] is advertised, bids go out and money is in place, we anticipate breaking ground in midspring.
“Council has to introduce an ordinance and allow for public discussion,” Jones said, adding that a date has not been scheduled yet for a public hearing and vote by the council.
A park at the Manahassett Creek area has been in the city’s master plan for decades, Jones explained at the meeting, adding that finalizing plans for the project was not an overnight process.
“Five years ago, the mayor asked Carl Turner [the city’s assistant director of planning and zoning] and me to do a study,” Jones said. “There was obviously a need for parks.
“Since the 1950s, it has been in the master plan to develop Manahassett Creek and make it a nice park,” Jones said, adding, “We really didn’t need more buildings over there. With the open space, we thought, ‘Let’s keep it open space and let’s make some renovations to it.’ ”
Jones said that he and D.W. Smith encountered several unexpected obstacles in trying to develop plans for the site.
“We have been working on this park since 2002,” Jones said. “We received a tract of land that had numerous problems.
“The initial problem was to try to find what the best use of the land was. The land had been dumped on and it had underground storage tanks.
“We had to test the area and there was some contamination that had to be addressed,” he said.
Once the city received the go-ahead from the [state] Department of Environmental Protection to move forward, Jones said the city still had to conduct surveys of the property at the park site.
“The boundaries were unclarified,” Jones said. “We had to do title searches, get deeds and get the surveys done.
“At that same time, we were also trying to find what should go into the park. We were meeting with Little League sports, local sports groups and community residents,” Jones said.
He added, “We will celebrate when I see the structure completed.”
When the city started to develop plans for the park, Jones said the city owned only 2.12 acres of land at the project site. After further review, the city found that it owned just short of 4 acres at the park area.
“Once we defined the borders, we found that there were parcels belonging to the city there,” Jones said. “So we were able to expand the park area and add activities to it.
“We were delighted to find that we had the added acreage,” he said.
The city purchased about 8.5 to 9 additional acres for the park, Jones said.
“We are looking for repayment from Green Acres for $2.7 million, which is about 75 percent of the monies expended for the purchases,” Jones said.
Once completed, Manahassett Creek Park will be the largest active park in the city, Jones said.