After six months on the back burner due to the pandemic, Crescent City staff are ready to pursue the next round of state dollars to expand Beachfront Park and they want the community’s input.To get a piece of the $395 million available in Proposition 68 grants for park projects, Crescent City must first complete its master plan for Beachfront Park.Voters approved Proposition 68 — the Park, Environment and Water Bond — in June 2018, which allocated $4 billion in general obligation bonds for park, environmental, water infrastructure and flood protection projects.#placement_573654_0_i{width:100%;max-width:550px;margin:0 auto;}var rnd = window.rnd || Math.floor(Math.random()*10e6);var pid573654 = window.pid573654 || rnd;var plc573654 = window.plc573654 || 0;var abkw = window.abkw || '';var absrc = 'https://ads.empowerlocal.co/adserve/;ID=181918;size=0x0;setID=573654;type=js;sw='+screen.width+';sh='+screen.height+';spr='+window.devicePixelRatio+';kw='+abkw+';pid='+pid573654+';place='+(plc573654++)+';rnd='+rnd+';click=CLICK_MACRO_PLACEHOLDER';var _absrc = absrc.split("type=js"); absrc = _absrc[0] + 'type=js;referrer=' + encodeURIComponent(document.location.href) + _absrc[1];document.write('');“We were set and primed to have this Beachfront Park master plan update starting in March of this year,” City Manager Eric Wier told the City Council Sept. 21. “Unfortunately this year didn’t go as planned. COVID hit right about the same time and turned everything upside down for the city including a lot of projects we had underway at that point.”For the first phase in updating its master plan, the city sought recommendations from the community last September for a non-competitive $200,000 Proposition 68 grant. Atop the list from those meetings were a labyrinth, bike pump track, expansion of Kidtown and a Bankshot Basketball course.The next phase was hiring Bay Area landscape architect PGAdesign to develop the public’s ideas into a finalized master plan.Wier said the original plan was to have PGAdesign present three proposed designs to the Crescent City Council in May and the Councilors adopt a finalized master plan in July to submit to the state.The new plan is to have PGAdesign’s three alternatives laminated and posted on large boards and placed in Beachfront Park, likely near Stamp’s Way and KidTown, Wier said.“The community will be able to go, view key concepts while having the atmosphere and ambiance in the park to envision what that might look like,” Wier said. “There will be a Google survey on the city’s website with the master plan’s concepts and we’ve scheduled a public meeting, Zoom style, on Oct. 7.”The link to the Zoom meeting will be published on the city’s website the day of the event for security reasons, city staff said.Wier said after the survey closes Oct. 12 staff will take all the comments and come up with a preferred design.“The preferred design will go before the Planning Commission and Council a few times. The Planning Commission will review a draft presentation somewhere around mid-November, a week before Thanksgiving. The Council will have an opportunity to weigh in on those and it’ll be an opportunity for the public to weigh in again,” Wier said.The City Council is expected to approve the Beachfront Park master plan concept at a special meeting Dec. 1, as the grant application and completed master plan are due to the state on Dec. 14.Wier explained that the state is looking to award $395 million for park projects in the current grant round, with communities eligible to apply for up to $8.5 million.“We could easily have an application that would max $8.5 million,” he said. “That could include expansion to Kidtown, a bike park — which itself is several million dollars.” googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display('ad-1515727'); });