By Sammy Bredar
Carmel Clay Parks & Recreation has entered a second round of gathering public input about the future Thomas Marcuccilli Nature Park. The feedback will inform CCPR’s master plan for the park.
The future park near 146th Street and River Road is expected to have amenities that highlight natural aspects of the land.
“Due to the site conditions, there is very little development that can be done on the site,” said Jylian Riches, CCPR marketing and communications director. “Additionally, the landscape and natural history of the site is unique — both locally and to central Indiana. These factors, along with the general need/desire for greenspace in Carmel, led to the idea of a nature park.”
CCPR presented three initial themes for the park: Touchstone to Past Stories, Landscape Forward, and Framework. The first round of public input helped to narrow options.
“There was a strong preference shown for option 1 – Touchstone to Past Stories and Option 2 – Landscape Forward (very little deviation between option 1 and 2) and there was a clear dislike of option 3 – Framework,” Riches said. “The top three desired uses of the park were nature observation and wildlife viewing, walking and running/jogging.”
CCPR has gathered feedback from the community via surveys and public meetings and is still collecting input.
“The online survey is currently available and will remain online until the first week of September,” Riches said. “Once that is closed, Carmel Clay Parks & Recreation and (planning firm) MKSK will review the feedback and refine the park concept further. That concept, along with all the data gathered throughout the public input process, will be presented to the Carmel Clay Board of Parks and Recreation. Once approved, the master plan will be used to guide the development of the park. Once funding for the park is secured and development moves forward, there will be additional meetings for the community and focus groups to give feedback about particular areas of the park, amenities, etc. It will likely be two to five years before CCPR begins developing Thomas Marcuccilli Nature Park.”
Riches said it will likely be two to five years before CCPR begins developing the nature park.
The online survey is available at ccpr.formstack.com/forms/nature_park_survey.
