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January 2019 Newsletter
With a goal of becoming a community asset, Bonnet Springs Park (BSP) will welcome visitors of all ages and backgrounds to a wide variety of opportunities to support physical and social equity. The planning and design of the park’s play areas are one of the many elements key in creating an active social hub.
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December 2018 Newsletter
Happy Birthday Bonnet Springs Park! We find ourselves at the third anniversary of ownership of the Bonnet Springs Park property (formerly the historic Lakeland Railyards), purchased in December 2015. The fear of opportunities lost coupled with the belief that a great park is a quality of life necessity for current and future generations was motivation for Carol and Barney Barnett to support the concepts for use of this land.
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November 2018 Newsletter
Bonnet Springs Park Located in an Opportunity Zone The recently passed Tax Reform Act includes a potential tax break for investors, resulting in deferral of capital gains taxes on the sale of an asset if located in a qualified Opportunity Zone. The intent is to encourage investments in distressed communities. Qualified Opportunity Zones are low-income communities nominated by the governor. An area in west Lakeland, which includes Bonnet Springs Park, has been nominated by Governor Scott.
October 2018 Newsletter
Building Sustainably at Bonnet Springs Park At the core of Bonnet Springs Park’s mission is to create a resilient ecological gem for the Lakeland community. Beyond healing the polluted soils and waterways, the new park structures will support efficient and responsible park operations long into the future. The four major buildings in the park will operate as primary income generators and will likewise be the more significant consumers of energy.
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Bonnet Springs Park to be a New Central Park for Lakeland, Florida
Ecological “jewel” The site certainly was far from “community ready” when the project began. For years the park site remained a vacant brownfield from prior industrial use as one of Central Florida’s major railroad centers, the Lakeland Railyard. Sasaki now faces tough remediation and ecological conditions with 84 acres of land that contain arsenic and petroleum hydrocarbons. The team is using creative, complex remediation strategies and design tactics to convert this damaged land into the “Central Park of Lakeland.” In a bold early move, they will utilize a variety of remediation strategies including creatively stockpiling the most contaminated material into large hills that act as landscape elements completely transforming the park’s future typography.
September 2018 Newsletter
Bonnet Springs Park has its wings and is soaring toward opening in late 2020. Land clearing and testing are obvious on the 180-acre site, but the beehive of activity is occurring in the labs and workrooms of about 20 consultants and planners. They are plotting answers to everything from acoustics to zero footprints (that’s A to Z and all between), all intended to ensure that this park for everyone touches all the bases to become the great park envisioned. An important element of its early success is community engagement.
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August 2018 Newsletter
August has been an extremely busy month of engagement. We have held focus group meetings and tours, yielding new and exciting information to support our mission. Focus on food service, public art, solar energy, and educational programming have been validated through a wonderful collection of potential volunteers and supporters who share our vision for the park.
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Lakeland’s Explorations V Children’s Museum to join Bonnet Springs Park as ‘anchor institution’
Bonnet Springs Park organizers selected Lakeland’s Explorations V Children’s Museum to be the central cultural and scientific partner for the planned, 180-acre park project.
Being located within that park land will benefit the museum and its mission, the museum’s executive director, Kerry Falwell said.
Explorations V Children’s Museum Named as Anchor Institution at Bonnet Springs Park
At Explorations V Children’s Museum’s annual event, Night at the Museum, Board President, Joe Lauk, announced the Children’s Museum has been named the anchor institution at Bonnet Springs Park.
Bonnet Springs Park is a new development on 180 acres of land purchased from CSX by the nonprofit organization, Windsong Park, Inc. The Park is spearheaded by retired director of City of Lakeland Parks and Recreation, Bill Tinsley, long-time real estate developer, David Bunch, and Board President, Barney Barnett.
Three concepts revealed for mega park coming to Lakeland
The planners have spent the last couple of months soliciting feedback on what it should look like. David Bunch is one of the people behind the development of Bonnet Springs Park. It’s going to be a 180-acre park with a lake, part of it a former rail yard and the rest a heavily wooded area that’s been largely left untouched.