For complex planned in Platte Landing Park
The proposed new ball fields at Platte Landing Park in Parkville received a boost in the form of a $1 million grant from Platte County park tax proceeds.
The City of Parkville was officially approved for the million dollar Platte County Parks Partnership Grant at a meeting of the Platte County Commission on Monday.
“Platte Landing Park Ballfield Complex” is how the grant award is listed in county documents. The proposed fields have been a point of controversy among city officials and residents, with some appearing to favor a more commercialized complex while others wanting a smaller scale approach.
City of Parkville amended its original grant application, which mentioned lighting. The city took out the lighting in the grant that was approved this week.
“We are not funding lighting,” said Daniel Erickson, director for the Platte County Parks Department. “Citizens and leadership are having ongoing discussion. We are not micromanaging city initiatives, they take the lead on that.”
Ron Schieber, county commissioner, said he and Erickson recently had a Zoom call with some Parkville citizens concerned about the ball field project at Platte Landing Park.
“Our purpose in the call was to talk about our own process. They (the City of Parkville) are ultimately responsible for design. We don’t get involved in the planning or operations. It is up to those entities to get citizen input,” Schieber said.
The controversy over the scale and potential commercialization of the project was a point of discussion at a board of aldermen meeting earlier this month. Aldermen Phil Wassmer and Tina Welch have helped lead citizen response to fears about lighting and other aspects.
In March, the city pledged to remove lighting from the preliminary project plans and to host opportunities for public input.
“The fear is that it has been three months and the plan will just show up and there hasn’t been any public input,” Welch said at a June 1 meeting.