CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — Commodore Park is in line to be the next upgrade for North Padre Island residents.
The city is in the process of completing the bridge over Park Road 22. Then a wave of new scenery will appear when Whitecap Preserve and Lake Padre projects are completed. Both are expected to bring new homes, walking trails, restaurants, retail stores and more.
“We really do have a blank slate here with commodore park. This is really y'alls park,” Phillip Ramirez with Turner Ramirez Architects said. His firm wil lead the design of the park.
Thursday was the second input session for people to share how they envisioned the Commodore Park Master Plan.
In Bond 2022, voters approved $1 million to go to the planning and design of the new Commodore Park.
Currently, the park is located on a small corner of Commodores Drive and Swordfish Street. The city plans to expand it into the large space between the park and the North Padre Island Equipment Storage Facility.
Residents have things they want city officials to keep in mind while they give their input.
“If you look at the Port A complex, you look at the tennis center, you look at the current skate parks that we have, none of those are in somebody’s back yard. So, we got to look a little bit at the noise produced by these,” one neighbor to the park said.
"My concern is down Commodores (Drive) that’s all a bike lane. If you have people parking, blocking that bike lane, that’s a very short street, Swordfish (Street) is, so if you have people parking there then that kind of, I think, would be a problem,” another neighbor to the park said.
Attendees of the input session got five stickers to place on pictures of amenities they want to see at the new park. The run away top choice was pickle ball courts.
“You need to be 150 feet away from the closest home and then it becomes negligible. There’s no sound interference," an island resident said in regards to the noise concerns.
After pickle ball, participants chose a nature preserve, splash pad, community center and walking trail to round out the top five choices. The idea of a community center got some attention because residents said there’s no indoor large gathering spaces on the island.
There's still an opportunity to share their input on the park. The city has an online survey open until 11:59 p.m. on Friday.
By 4 p.m. Thursday, the city had received 1,055 completed surveys. Once the information is compiled, Turner Ramirez Architects will get to work on a design. After that's complete, they plan to bring it back to residents for their input once again.
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