BRENHAM CITY LEADERS TO HEAR UPDATE ON BRENHAM FAMILY PARK
A joint session is scheduled for Wednesday for City of Brenham officials to receive an update on the Brenham Family Park.
Brenham City Councilmembers, along with members of the Brenham Community Development Corporation (BCDC) Board and Parks and Recreation Advisory Board, will hear a presentation from Jones Carter Engineering on the proposed design for Phase 1(a) of the park.
Most recently, members of the Parks and Recreation Advisory Board were updated in April on the park’s progress. They were told at that meeting that the city expects to bid out the first phase of the project for construction in September. Construction would begin in November and take 18-24 months to complete.
The park will be located on 106.8 acres of land donated to the city by Ed and Evelyn Kruse in December 2013. The land is located just south of Highway 290 off South Chappell Hill Street, north of the Brenham State Supported Living Center.
The meeting will be held Wednesday morning at 11:45 a.m. at the Historic Simon Theater.
To bad the city let that cheap nasty strip center come in, in the same area. It’s going to take so much away from what otherwise could have been a beautiful area.
I hope that someone will point out that this land which is a natural water course and will accumulate large amounts of trash washed down stream during heavy rains. Parks also should be build near residential areas so residents can enjoy them easily. The budget requirements to maintain the proposed park and clean it up after heavy rains will stress the city’s budget. This is an offshoot and unintended consequence of the poorly planed and implemented now going on four year Baker Katz development along 290. Total waste of money
If you look back at the history of this, it’s all in KWHI, Banner Press, and WashingtonCAD archives. All that land was owned by Kruse Marital Trust (WashingtonCAD). The Kruse family negotiated the sale of the commercial land to Baker Katz while (conjecture) simultaneously negotiating the donation of the land for the park. Kruses required (as reported by KWHI) that the donated land be used for a family park and required that it include ponds and water features. While not outright stated in the news, it’s clear to me that the watershed of all that hard surface in the commercial property has already been planned to flow to the family park. The taxes on that huge purchase price for that land to BK was offset some by the land donated to the city.
It was an excellent business decision that I think will benefit the commercial and residential quality in Brenham.