Las Animas Veterans Park may be overhauled to improve safety,
allure
n By Serdar Tumgoren
Staff Writer
Gilroy – A draft plan to restore one of Gilroy’s two largest parks to its status as a family destination will go before parks and recreation commissioners tonight.
Las Animas Veterans Park is now a haven for many of the city’s homeless and gang members, but a master plan for the site envisions overhauls intended to improve both safety and its allure for all age groups.
Plans call for a concrete BMX-bike facility to be located next to the existing skate park in the northwest corner of Las Animas, at the intersection of Mantelli and Wren avenues.
The plan also envisions an 11-court tennis complex, a community center, new sports fields and a dog park. Planners hope to increase safety at the park by, among other things, creating walking lanes wide enough for police cruisers.
The latest version of the plan going before commissioners tonight includes some minor recent changes, according to landscape architect Lee Steinmetz.
“Things like making sure there are adequate bike racks, safe connections from the bike lanes on the street onto the trails in the park,” Steinmetz said. “Those kinds of details would occur on the next level of design, but we’ll add policies or guidelines to make sure those things are not forgotten.”
The changes at the park are expected to occur in coming years based in a three-phase process, as money becomes available in the city’s capital improvement budget.
The bike facility is slated for the first phase, while the tennis complex and the community center are scheduled for the second and third phases, respectively.
Environmental review of the plans will move forward once city leaders sign off on the draft plans.
