Latest Concept for George Mason Square/Kitty Pozer Park

After hearing from almost two dozen residents and business representatives at last week's public outreach meeting on the Kitty Pozer Park/George Mason Square redevelopment, the City Council directed staff to draft a new concept for the area that would expand the park, have no net loss of parking for the small businesses and help pay down some of the $2.3 million debt that the City and Economic Development Authority holds on the property.

The latest concept, which can be seen in this rendering, and above to the right. Specifics of the plan include:

• The 16,000 square-foot open space at Pozer Park would be more than doubled to approximately 32,200 square feet.
• The 39 temporary parking spaces would be replaced with 12 permanent parking spaces next to Old Town Hall and 27 spaces near the library to assure no net loss of that temporary parking.
• The Surf Shop building would be retained on a 6,900 square-foot lot (with the 10 required parking spaces remaining on-site) and could be sold for either private commercial use or redevelopment.
• The existing debt on the George Mason Square property ($2.3M) would be reduced to approximately $1M.

There is still more to be done on this, but generally I think we are going in the right direction with the overall plan as we expand our open space, create a destination area for events (which will certainly help the downtown businesses), maintain parking for our small businesses and keep the iconic "Surf Shop" where it is.

The Council be holding a public hearing on January 24 at 7 p.m. in City Hall to get feedback from the community and come to a consensus on moving the project forward. I look forward to hearing people's views.