The current plan for a renovated Lytle Park lacks $6 million in funding it could have had if voters had approved a parks levy in November 2015.
"A diet version of the Cincinnati Board of Park Commissioners' plan for Lytle Park got some praise and some criticism at a forum on Wednesday night in the Guilford Building," reports Chris Wetterich, "with the most-contentious issue whether or not to put a quarter-mile walking and running path within it."
"At most, the department will have about $2.5 million to overhaul the park after it had hoped to spend $6.5 million on it, a figure tied to the passage of the failed Cincinnati parks levy in 2015," explains Wetterich. What money is available will come from the Ohio Department of Transportation and, possibly, Western & Southern Financial Group.
Now that the park won't have the benefit of the park levy funding, the plan for the park eliminates "water walls, plantings, interpretive plaques, stone walls, fencing, a mini-stage and shelter and a play area…" Some of the sidewalks will be also be narrower.
Carrie Blackmore Smith provides additional background on the project in a separate article.
FULL STORY: Slimmed-down Lytle Park plan gets mixed review from downtown residents
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