Council backs $250,000 planning grant to study converting Atlantic Street into parkland

The City Council unanimously approved an ordinance authorizing $250,000 in Community Investment Fund (CIF) Round 7 funds to evaluate converting Atlantic Street into a park and community open space.

Councilors heard that the appropriation covers soft costs — community engagement, feasibility analysis and preliminary site studies. Director Reyes said the award pays for planning work and that any construction money would require separate capital funding and additional grant applications. He said the city will run a public request-for-proposals (RFP) or use on-call consultant lists to hire engineers or architects for the feasibility work.

Staff told the committee that project partners intend to contribute $50,000 of in-kind soft costs for additional site analysis, and that CitiFin or federal grants could be pursued to fund later design and construction phases. Councilors asked about long-term maintenance and were assured that maintenance funding and department coordination will be addressed during the planning process.

The ordinance (0518-26-04) passed by roll call vote and the planning phase will proceed with public outreach to define options before the council considers any construction-phase funding.