City Will 'Peel Back The Fence' on Waterfront Park Today

The 13-acre parcel behind the Safety Harbor Resort and Spa that's planned to be a sprawling waterfront park will finally be open to the public.

The city is hosting a "peel back the fence" party on the property on at 11 a.m. on Saturday, June 29, complete with food, games and entertainment, as a way to introduce the community to its newest public park.

"The purpose of the event is to get the public familiar with the property and to allow them to start to enjoy it," Mayor Joe Ayoub told Patch.

The city has been sitting on the property since purchasing it from the spa for $2.7 million in February of last year as it developed plans for what to do with the land and when to do it.

Through numerous steering committees, meetings and public forums, a multi-phased plan was developed that calls for a gradual process to transform the open space into a fully functioning park, complete with boardwalks, trails, a splash pad and possibly a commercial establishment.

The City Commission recently held a budget workshop to decide how much to spend on phase one of the project and where the money will come from.

"The commission has approved a $2.25 million budget over the next two years for Phase 1 of the project," City Manager Matt Spoor said. 

"The money will be taken from our general reserves and paid back using CRA and Penny for Pinellas funds over the next 8-10 years."

Phase one involves mainly infrastructure and site prep work, including sidewalk and parking lot leveling and drainage. That work is expected to begin later this year or early next year and take approximately nine months to complete.

For now the mayor said he just wants to get the park open for the public to use; he said the timing couldn't be better.

"The process of acquiring this land started in 2011, and it's taken two and a half years to get it open to the public," he said.

"Now it will officially be open to the public to go back there and enjoy. It's perfect - just in time for our Fourth of July festivities."