Kaal Rock Park Improvements

Project Description:

The City of Poughkeepsie has identified Kaal Rock Park as an underutilized City park in need of rehabilitation and has retained LaBella Associates (LaBella) to assist with the park’s revitalization. Specifically, LaBella and the City (Project Team) will design lighting and electrical upgrades and two sand volleyball courts and prepare a conceptual plan of the entire park, including Kaal Rock Point. The primary design objectives for Kaal Rock Park improvements include the following:

1. Prepare an overall conceptual plan of the park to assist with future planning efforts and ensure that lights are installed in locations with the park’s future buildout in mind.
2. Produce shovel ready plans for installation of lighting and electrical facilities. 
3. Produce shovel ready plans for the installation of the volleyball courts. 

Project Schedule:

• February – April: Stakeholder and Focus Group Meetings
• April: Draft Conceptual Park Plan
• May 31: Public Design Workshop #1 , 5pm to 7pm, Common Council Chambers
• July: Final Draft Conceptual Park Plan
• July: Public Design Workshop #2 (Date and time to be determined)

Stakeholder and Focus Group Meetings  

Gaining access to specialized knowledge held by stakeholders is a major benefit of public engagement. Residents and stakeholders possess technical and programing information which is important to decision makers. LaBella, in partnership with the City of Poughkeepsie, will engage stakeholders and the general public throughout this design and visioning process.  

LaBella will work with the Project Team to identify stakeholders to assist with the park improvement process. Additionally, we will utilize findings from previous planning studies, the newly adopted Comprehensive Plan and the Local Waterfront Revitalization Plan (LWRP) as a basis for park programming. LaBella will work with the City of Poughkeepsie and the Project Team to schedule the meetings. 

Design Workshops

Once the Draft Conceptual Park Plan has been prepared, the Project Team will conduct the first public design workshop. The purpose of the first workshop will be to present findings of the stakeholder meetings and provide opportunities for the public to review the Draft Conceptual Park Plan and offer input towards the final draft. To supplement the one-day workshop, online opportunities to review and comment on the Draft Concept Plan will be provided. The City of Poughkeepsie website will be utilized for online engagement purposes.

A second workshop will be conducted once the Final Draft Park Concept Plan has been prepared. This workshop will summarize public input received to date, discuss how the concept has evolved, and how challenges were addressed. In addition, there will be opportunities to provide additional input towards finalizing the overall concept plan and to address any outstanding design issues. Similar to the first workshop, online engagement process will be provided to increase opportunities for public engagement.