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Council previews 5–10 year master plan for Corinth Community Park
Summary
City staff presented a phased 5–10 year master plan for Corinth Community Park that would reconfigure fields, add roughly 100 parking spaces, and prioritize phased implementation and grant funding; staff will collect more public feedback and return with a final concept this summer.
Caroline, a city parks staff member, told the Corinth City Council on March 5 that the city hired Dunaway to create a short- and long-term master plan for Corinth Community Park and to identify grant opportunities and a phased approach to upgrades. “We told him it was probably a 5 to 10 year master plan,” she said.
The plan, developed after fall stakeholder meetings, a QR-code community survey and outreach at a Halloween event, divides the park into north and south sections. Caroline said consultants proposed adding playable baseball fields on the north side, shrinking oversized adult-size softball fields (currently about 330 feet) to free green space and create room for additional parking, and clustering sports facilities so families can gather in a central activity lawn.
Why it matters: the community park is the city’s largest asset—staff said Corinth has about 176 acres of public parkland, 128 acres of which are at the community park—and improvements must be affordable to maintain with existing staff levels. “We have eight park employees, but really six, three that maintain this park,” Caroline said, noting maintenance capacity limits design choices.
Key details: the concept would add a pedestrian corridor connecting fields, create centralized concession and restroom facilities, and could increase parking by roughly 100 spaces overall (staff estimated about 20 additional spots on one south-side area pending final design). The south side plan responds to a thin lot and poor circulation near the pond by relocating and resizing fields, adding dedicated pickleball courts and moving the basketball court to improve access.
On surfaces and operations, staff reported mixed views among sports associations: some asked for one or two turf fields for weather resilience, while many youth players prefer natural grass. For maintenance, staff said the city already uses automated mowers on diamond fields; those mowers cost about $5,000–$6,000 each and have an expected lifespan of about five to six years, which staff said helps offset labor needs.
What Council asked: members pressed on parking adequacy for tournaments, how many additional players and family members new fields would draw, and how maintenance would be handled with current staffing. Staff said the plan is phased and consultants will produce preliminary cost estimates; the associations’ input and event scheduling (staggering games) are expected to mitigate peak parking pressure.
Next steps: staff will take council feedback to the consultant, gather further public input at the city’s Easter event, and return with a final concept and preliminary numbers for council approval this summer. The council did not take any formal vote on the concept at the workshop.
