The final version of the Franke Park Master Plan is now available for public view.
Fort Wayne’s Parks and Recreation department began developing the decade-long plan last September, completing the process in April.
The plan is immersive, and according to the department sets out to repair challenges such as “periodic flooding, issues with traffic circulation and wayfinding, and parking efficiency.” The plan addresses all of these concerns, with the first phase focusing on repairing and improving the Goshen Road entry to the park as well as the Foellinger Theatre parking lot.
The department says it held two open houses, interviewed roughly 60 individual stakeholders and sent out two surveys with more than 1,600 responses to gauge the public’s perceptions of the century-old park.
The projected costs of the plan are outlined on page 74 of the 86-page document. The overall cost of the entire plan comes out somewhere between $60 and $80 million, but it would be spread out across seven phases (and three sub-phases) all the way through December 2030.
Due to what officials describe as a “lengthy permitting process,” the city parks department doesn’t expect to begin construction until the fourth quarter of 2020. A funding plan will also have to be agreed upon by the department and City Council, with approval from the Mayor’s Office.
The entirety of the Franke Park Master Plan can be viewed its dedicated website.
