City Engineer Scott Coccia told the Parks and Recreation Advisory Board on Dec. 18 that the Legacy Park parking-lot improvement project has reached a conceptual design phase and will include removal and replacement of asphalt, drainage upgrades sized for a 100-year storm, a new septic system for restrooms, a secured maintenance area, a dumpster pad, and a memorial wall and low dividing wall between fields. "We're going to actually increase the size of the drainage facility out there to be able to handle the regulated 100 year storm event," Coccia said.

Coccia described a conceptual layout that increases the number of parking stalls from about 75 to roughly 127. He said the conceptual cost is roughly $1.0 million — a figure he characterized as about a 40% increase from the earlier ~$800,000 estimate — and attributed the rise to market escalation and design refinements. (Note: the meeting transcript contains a garbled numeric sequence when the cost was read; the project summary above uses the stable $1.0M estimate given elsewhere in the presentation and the board’s discussion.)

On the Milton Park & Preserve side, Coccia said construction at Passapark is "substantially complete" and staff requested and received extensions (first to December, then an additional extension through June) to finish landscaping, punch-list items, and to obtain a Department of Natural Resources field visit needed for final sign-off. Coccia said the city is holding the contract open pending final reimbursement of a $1,500,000 grant and expects trails to reopen in mid-January.

For the MCPP active project, Coccia said designers reduced parking from 133 to 128 stalls to meet community-development landscaping requirements; he said staff could seek a variance but that removing landscape islands would only recover about five stalls. He gave a conceptual cost estimate of about $2.6 million for the active project, said 60% plans are expected by Jan. 13, 2026, and projected design completion in March 2026 with bidding and council approval to follow.

Board members asked detailed questions about septic location (staff said existing field is under the parking lot and likely at the end of useful life), staging and maintaining parking during construction, and possible overflow parking and shuttle options. Coccia said the team plans to stage construction to maintain facility access where possible and to coordinate with pool/seasonal schedules to minimize disruption.

Next steps: staff will continue final design to 60% and prepare for bidding; Coccia estimated construction for the Legacy parking-lot improvements could take about nine months once started.