Palm Bay Bayfront Plans New City Park and Nature Trail
By Yvonne Martinez // May 17, 2015
Clean up of property began this month
ABOVE VIDEO: Palm Bay Acting Parks and Recreation Director Tom Michaud talks about land donated to the City of Palm Bay will soon become a waterfront park in Palm Bay’s Bayfront Redevelopment District. This area of Palm Bay runs along the Indian River Lagoon and is the gateway to Palm Bay.
BREVARD COUNTY • PALM BAY, FLORIDA – Five acres of riverfront property immediately south of the Ted Moorhead Lagoon House in the city’s Bayfront Community Redevelopment District is one step closer to being revitalized and made into a new city park and nature trail.
The property was donated to the city in 1997 through a State of Florida grant.
The conditions of the grant required the city build a nature trail to correspond with public education at the Lagoon House which is operated by the Marine Resources Council to provide a history of the Indian River Lagoon and the National Scenic Byway.
“For unknown reasons this project kept getting put on hold until now,” said Acting Parks and Recreation Director Tom Michaud.
“We are mandated to create the trails or face losing the property all together.”
Clean up of the property began this month. Police and code compliance officers have had ongoing communications with a total of five homeless people who used the property as a camp advising them that construction was about to begin.
They voluntarily vacated the property but left behind several abandoned campsites. The city used the services of the Brevard County Sheriff’s Office Inmate Work Program to clean out what was left behind in order to start the construction of the trail.
The goal is to have the trails and the park completed by the end of July.
“The idea is to create a trail system around a park that will not only provide a place to enjoy the lagoon but will be a place to learn about the history of this area,” Michaud added.
“Our plan is to partner with the Lagoon House to build in educational opportunities about the lagoon, the land, its former Native American inhabitants and Florida’s unique vegetation that is so rich in here.”
The Bayfront Community Redevelopment District runs along the east side of the site along the U.S. 1 corridor and the Indian River lagoon.
The city is continuously working to bring in new assets to this area to bolster new growth and development. The area has recently been the subject of review by professional design engineers specializing in revitalization.
Plans could include the future development of an entertainment district that could serve as the city’s “downtown.”
It could also feature new retail, lodging, fine dining, conference center or other planned development.
“This park and nature trail could be a great catalyst and it shows our commitment to improve and revitalize this area,” said Mayor William Capote.
“Palm Bay is so rich with potential and the Bayfront area is at the heart of all of it. It is the gateway to our great city and we need to do what we can to make it prosper.”
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