It's back to the drawing board for Elk Grove park plan

The Elk Grove Park District Board has decided to defer applying for a state grant to improve Fountain Square Park after residents protested the planned work.

The park district will work with residents to come up with a more acceptable plan and seek the grant next year instead of this year, board members decided last week.

"We've decided to put the renovation on hold and work with the residents some more," said Allan Petersen, director of parks and planning for the district.

The district will hold meetings with residents to solicit input, he said.

"We plan to decide how many people we need at each meeting, to set a time and date for each meeting, and we hope to make a core group that will attend a lot of them so we can get a lot of good things working," Petersen said.

Fountain Square Park on the west side of the town has a spray pad/splash ground that goes back 18 years, but plans to upgrade the facility drew the ire of many local residents, who complain that it draws too big a crowds and many people from outside the district. Park users include day camps, preschools and YMCA camps, Petersen said, acknowledging that on some days, "there's too many people."

"We've tried to change our hours and discourage outside groups, but there's not a lot we can do about that," he said.

There were also concerns about maintenance. "It's a lot of little things," he said.

The park district already has renovated the play playground. The district wants to get funding for the next phase of work from the Open Space Land Acquisition and Development program of the state Department of National Resources.

The initial plan was for a $650,000 plan revamp including a new splash pad, bocce ball court and walking path. But at a park board meeting June 26, about 45 residents said they didn't feel like they had a lot of input. The board deadlocked over applying for the grant. The matter then was taken up again at a committee of the whole meeting last week, when it was decided to take more time to work on the plan.

"We anticipate getting a grant next year," Petersen said.