CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — Corpus Christi officials approved final plans for the redevelopment of one area of town at Tuesday's City Council meeting.
The redevelopment of the North Side of Corpus Christi has been years in the making and council members approved a $14.3 million project to refresh several city parks.
In an effort to revitalize and encourage the advancement of the community, the city is working with the the Hillcrest Community Advisory Board and members of the Resident Association.
The project will include reconstruction to Washington Coles Park, T.C. Ayers Park, Ben Garza Park and Dr. H.J. Williams Park.
Many residents living near these parks and monuments said the rich history of areas like Hillcrest has been slowly stripped away by the construction of the Harbor Bridge, and other industrial plants.
Many are calling it "environmental racism."
“Now since the city has been working closely with the Hillcrest community and have a tentative plan, we feel that we are ready to amend the contract and the engineer is going to be contracted to bring the design from 30% to 100% completion," Assistant City Manager Neiman Young said.
City officials said they want to make sure that recreational spaces are preserved for all Hillcrest community members and visitors.
"More importantly, we want to ensure there’s an economic development piece to the plan, not only for just the Hillcrest community, but the city of Corpus Christi as a whole," Young said.
Within those improvements, the city said there’s potential to add a new amphitheater, playground structures, loop trails, event lawns, food truck court and even a possible splash pad.
Julie Levingston grew up in the Hillcrest area and said this could be a game changer to bringing the community back together.
“It'll be good thing for us, I mean, for everybody," Levingston said. "Not just for the Black community, but anybody that wants to come to Hillcrest Park. All I know is that it doesn’t look the same.”
On Thursday, city members will meet with the members of the Community Advisory Board and the Resident Association on Thursday to get more of their input on what they’re looking to see redeveloped in their community.
A final proposal of all the amenities and improvements will be brought to council in July.
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