FRISCO — A tubing park, an outdoor skating rink, a jib park and a BMX mountain bike park: This could be the future of the Frisco peninsula after years of exploring what could be built on the recreation area near town.
Council members mulled over two potential designs for the peninsula at Tuesday’s work session, including other goals for the recreation area – a day lodge and infrastructure work. Council members also considered moving the skate park to accommodate new construction.
After surveying the community in 2006 about desires for the peninsula, Frisco created a land-use plan in 2007 focused on recreation activities that aren’t invasive to the area.
“The community said that it wants the peninsula to be a major recreational area,” said Jocelyn Mills, Frisco’s senior planner. ” … This project right now is taking the list from the land-use plan and implementing it while still ensuring that core amenities (like disc golf, the ball fields and Nordic skiing) are maintained.”
DHM Design – a landscape architecture firm that specializes in sustainable design – was hired in January to create a concept for the peninsula that locals can accept.
With council input from Tuesday, design engineers and town staff will work together to firm up the proposal by mid-April.
“Finances will be the main variable in deciding to move forward with the project and how,” said Michael Penny, Frisco’s town manager. “Once we fine tune what it is that we’re working with, we’ll figure out finances. We’ll figure out revenue and expenditures. Then we’ll make a phasing plan.”
Council members and design engineers agreed that recreation safety is a top priority when planning for potentially dangerous recreation activities.
Over 50 people commented on proposed activities for the Frisco peninsula at DHM’s open house on March 3.
According to Penny, many locals expressed concerns about preserving the length of Frisco Nordic Center trails and impacts to the Waterdance subdivision, including noise and lighting.
DHM design engineers said Tuesday that they’re working to accommodate Nordic trails in site plans and that the Nordic center will likely stay separate from the peninsula project, with probable expansion to the existing Nordic building.
