MELBOURNE, Fla. \u2014 Melbourne leaders are considering a proposal to revamp Holmes Park into a downtown gathering space connecting the area with the Crane Creek waterfront, with residents and business owners invited to weigh in at a public workshop Sept. 15.<\/p>\n
The workshop is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. at Front Street Park.<\/p>\n
The proposal would transform the mostly unused 3-acre park into a space with an amphitheater, children\u2019s play area, splash pad and event space, all while preserving the tree canopy.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe vision for this project is (to) create a true gathering space,\u201d said Melbourne economic development manager Robert McKinzie.<\/p>\n
McKinzie said the city wants public feedback on what the park should look like and how it should function.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo learn from the public, things they want to see in the park, and really how we can better activate the space,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Part of the new park would be built on land purchased by North American Properties, which would be donated back to the city.<\/p>\n
The project is being closely watched by nearby downtown businesses, including The Roots, a breakfast and brunch restaurant owned by Chef Klaus Krause.<\/p>\n
Krause, who has owned the restaurant for five years and works there seven days a week, said he would consider expanding hours if the park brings more people downtown.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe evening hours, possibly, we could extend our hours in the evenings or for special events,\u201d Krause said.<\/p>\n
Krause said he has rarely seen people using Holmes Park.<\/p>\n
\u201cYears and years I\u2019ve been driving by there and haven\u2019t seen anybody hanging out at the park,\u201d Krause said.<\/p>\n
He said the project could bring more business before and after events held at the revamped space.<\/p>\n
\u201cStay open later in the day and cater to that crowd,\u201d Krause said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MELBOURNE, Fla. \u2014 Melbourne leaders are considering a proposal to revamp Holmes Park into a downtown gathering space…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":87104,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[145606,22531,22532,4944,22530,38527,260,152,22529,149,7780],"class_list":["post-87103","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-melbourne","tag-app-community","tag-app-top-stories","tag-brevard-county","tag-florida","tag-greg-pallone","tag-local-politics","tag-melbourne","tag-news","tag-orlando","tag-politics","tag-top-stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87103","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=87103"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87103\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/87104"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=87103"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=87103"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=87103"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}