Posted Dec 20, 2007, 12:43 PM
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Registered User
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Join Date: Jun 2006
Posts: 476
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Nice to have more waterfront access. I hope they do this up similar to the 5 Rivers Park on the Causeway. A fishing pier would be a really nice addition as well. That is not an area I would go to very often unless they do some cleaning up of the surrounding neighborhoods. Hopefully this will be done as part of the Bring Back Broad deal.
Land deal made for Bayfront Park
But agreement doesn't include Arlington Point Wednesday, December 19, 2007By KAIJA WILKINSON and BEN RAINESStaff Reporters
The Alabama State Port Authority plans a public park by late 2008 or early 2009 on more than 20 acres just east of Brookley Industrial Complex on Mobile Bay, part of 46 acres it agreed Tuesday to buy for $1.3 million from the Mobile Airport Authority.
But the park does not include a key element of the plan the Port Authority discussed as early as 2003 -- inclusion of Arlington Point. That 15-acre, man-made spit of land juts into the bay between Brookley and the McDuffie Coal Terminal.
"I would love to see Arlington Point itself eventually incorporated, but we're not there right now," said Jimmy Lyons, who runs the state docks.
The docks will use some of the land it purchased to replace wetlands it destroyed in developing its new container terminal at nearby Choctaw Point.
Lyons said the park will have a boardwalk winding through wetlands, and could eventually include walking trails, gazebos, kayak launches and a parking area. Plans for a pier included in the park plan developed by Spectrum & Associates are uncertain, he said.
In addition to its $1.3 million to buy the Airport Authority land, the state docks would spend about $2 million to develop the park, Port Authority officials said, and another $5 million to create the new wetlands, a project headed by Thompson Engineering.
Facing criticism that the state docks' container terminal and railyard development at the former site of Monroe Park would rob residents of their last hope for meaningful public access to Mobile Bay, Lyons in 2003 announced plans to create a new park for the city centered around Arlington Point.
The Point would provide areas for fishing, picnicking and wading in the water. The plan was applauded by community leaders who have seen much of the city's 30 miles of waterfront devoted to industry.
But the Port Authority did not own Arlington Point. The U.S. Army owns the land, and the Airport Authority has about 30 years left on a lease of part of the property.
In 2003, docks officials said they were confident they could make the plan work, possibly by swapping some state docks land for rights to Arlington Point and adjacent properties. That optimism was maintained during a series of public meetings in early 2005, when docks officials presented drawings of what the new park centered on Arlington Point would look like.
However, in October 2005, up to $2.5 million in improvements to an existing dock facility at Arlington Point was included as part of a package of incentives used to lure a tanker aircraft assembly center to the Brookley Field Industrial Complex.
That project, plus a Coast Guard presence on Arlington Point, have tied up the Arlington Point property, docks spokeswoman Judy Adams said.
EADS North America and Northrop Grumman Corp. have teamed in an effort to win the U.S. Air Force contract. If successful, the companies would create an estimated 1,000 new jobs at Brookley.
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