Master Plans for Civic Center Grounds Include Changes that Would Address Existing Issues
By Chris Johnson on November 11, 2022
The City of Bridgeport’s Parks and Recreation Department served as host for a public meeting on Thursday at the Benedum Civic Center where two master plans for what the Civic Center grounds could look like.
The purpose of the meeting is to present two conceptual plans for the redesign of the grounds of the Benedum Civic Center. These areas include the Bridgeport Pool area, the adjacent parking lots and the area across Simpson Creek near Virginia Ave. and Worthington Dr. The plans include the footprint of the future replacement of the Bridgeport Pool, but not the design of the pool.
Sam Rich from Thrasher Engineering also made a presentation where he discussed what went into coming up with the pair of conceptional plans upon completion of field work, field survey work and the Thrasher design team assessing existing conditions.
Parks and Recreation Director Joe Shuttleworth said the public survey that was conducted in regard to what residents want to see at the grounds was definitely useful. He said well over 500 surveys were completed.
According to Rich’s report the key takeaways from the survey data were:
- Improve conditions of existing elements or replace with new trends.
- Improve parking, circulation and access to park elements.
- Respondents are using other parks in the area.
- Shade and green space mentioned many times.
“We have some parking issues, we have some traffic issues,” Shuttleworth said. “We wanted to look at ways to improve all of that while also increasing some green space.”
The plans have some similarities but one difference centers around pickleball/tennis courts.
Option 1 features three pickleball/tennis courts on the north sound of the grounds by the playground, basketball court and beach volleyball court. This option also features a parking lot with 52 spaces to the left of the courts.
Option 2 features a parking lot that would run parallel with Worthington Drive, the basketball court being closer to the Bowstring Bridge and no pickleball/tennis courts on the grounds. This option however would include a plan to build new pickleball/tennis courts and sand volleyball court by the lakes – these courts would be in addition to the courts already there that Bridgeport High School uses for its tennis teams.
Photographs of both options can be seen below with the first option on top and the second on the bottom.
Editor's Note: Top photo shows Rich during his presentation.
