As ideas continue to be generated for the redevelopment of Hemisfair Park, city council has approved additional funding to the agency planning the future of the previous World’s Fair site. The corporation is also seeking public input on what the park should look like.
In it’s 2014 budget city council has approved $1.15 million to the Hemisfair Park Area Redevelopment Corporation. Omar Gonzalez, Hemisfair’s planning and operations director, said that’s more than double what the organization has received before.
"A big portion of it is to really kind of help us with our fundraising efforts," Gonzalez said. "So we want to bring in the right staff for fundraising, we’re talking [about] a director of philanthropy kind of level to lead up that effort."
The funding will allow for nine total positions for Hemisfair, many of which will be behind market students for residential, retail, and commercial development.
To determine what residents want out of a redesigned Hemisfair Park, the agency has launched an online survey on what to do with a specific 8-10 acre area that will be known as the Civic Park, which will be at the corner of Alamo and Market streets.
We see the Civic Park as being a place where it can have active events whether that’s concert or art events … We think the Civic Park is that type of a park where it’s really active and really open to the public," Gonzalez said.
- Take the survey and additional information is online at www.hemisfair.org
