Prior to a Nov. 16 meeting of the Ellijay City Council, three councilmembers and Mayor Al Hoyle heard a presentation from a landscape architect who designed the recently completed 10-year master plan for downtown’s Harrison Park.
“I want to emphasize this is a master plan and master plans are flexible. They can move and change,” Mack Cain, of Suwanee-based architecture firm CPL, told Hoyle and present city councilmembers Kevin Pritchett, Al Fuller and Tom Crawford about the 10-year plan.
Cain discussed several options for future additions to the park included in the plan. One of those, he noted, is a small amphitheater area with an adjacent playground.
“(The amphitheater) is really nothing more than benches in the grass with an arbor or something standing at the end of it where someone could stand and speak or you could have activities or a band. You could have small events (there),” he said. “We felt like, (with) a playground in this space that’s inside the fence, kids can enjoy themselves while adults are having whatever else is going on with the events.”
A large, grassy area of the 26-acre park should remain that way, but could also accommodate various uses and events, Cain noted.
“It looks like a pasture and it should remain looking and feeling like a pasture. The idea is to take the center trail and reinforce it so trucks could drive on it, then reinforce the grass on the edges with gravel underneath so you could come in and set up tents on each side of the trail. People walk up and down the trail and this is your midway. You can have your fall festival or chili cookoff or whatever event. This is kind of the spine of the park where those kinds of events would take place and could be easily serviced,” he added.
Power and water would first have to be run there to accommodate such events, Cain said.
Other ideas for future park projects include a flexible-use agricultural area, a community garden, a dog park and a wildflower meadow.
“You can seed it once a year and mow it once a year. With those wildflowers in full bloom, everybody in the surrounding 10 counties are going to come here so they can walk out there,” Cain said.
He also noted that one of the biggest natural assets of the McCutchen Street location is its river access. Three access areas for tubers and other river travelers are included in the plan.
‘Use as a guide’
None of the future improvement options, with the exception of rest room facilities currently awaiting construction, have been approved or funded by the city.
Cain said the council should be hesitant to publicize cost estimates included in the plan, but he did tell those in attendance that the total cost for the first project phase is estimated at $600,000-$700,000.
“Numbers are never a good idea to hand out. Most of the time, they’re never right in everybody’s opinion. This is a document you use as a guide, to decide it’s going to cost this much, but we only have this much. Let’s pick out what we want,” he said. “It’s only a tool to decide what you want to do first and about how much that’s going to cost.”
First phase projects could include renovating the site’s old Pinson barn, a new parking lot, rest rooms, a dog park, a community garden and an outdoor stage, he noted.
“One of the biggest pieces of that is the bathroom and the barn,” Cain said.
“The biggest take-away on the barn is the hayloft is usable. It’s sturdy enough that you could have an event up there for up to 55 people. If you want to use that space, you’re going to have to build a better set of stairs. It’s possible to remove some dirt and create a wooden or a concrete slab floor. We recommend there should be a floor of some kind, not just the dirt,” he added.
Linda Lancaster, of Friends of Harrison Park, said another architect will soon be coming to take a closer look at the barn and its foundation.
“What we plan to do is get his feedback and bring a full plan to the council for what we would like to do, as Friends of Harrison Park, to bring the barn to top-notch condition. We would also look at it as a phased approach, so we wouldn’t ask you guys to sign off on the future for the next 10 years. We would put together something specific in terms of our approach and the funding we would want to secure to make it happen, then ask you guys to approve that before we spent any significant money beyond what we already have,” she told the councilmembers.
Lancaster noted recent increased use of the park, a popular venue for various types of outdoor exercise.
“One of the things we’ve noticed is how popular it’s become for walkers and runners. It’s not unusual, on any given day, to go out there and have a hard time finding a parking place without any event or special activity (going on). If COVID did anything positive, one of those was it allowed people to find Harrison Park and learn what a great little space it was. I think we’re going to continue to see that,” she added.
Mike Lancaster, also of Friends of Harrison Park, said the group will soon be asking for city council input on the next steps to take concerning which improvement project(s) need to be prioritized.