Steve Thurston (2021)
Fort Hardy Park in Schuylerville is in the beginning stages of planning for redevelopment.
The LA Group has won the bid to plan Fort Hardy Park on Ferry Street in the Village of Schuylerville. The 22-acre park with 550 feet of Hudson River shoreline just blocks from downtown Schuylerville is already home to a gazebo, a boat launch ramp, a basic kayak launch and dock area, some ball fields and a small building that is used as a youth center. The park sits between Reds Road, the Tow Path and the western shore of the river.
The winning bid only covers planning for the park, not construction or development of the site.
The park sits near the state’s Canalway trail system, but they are separate entities, officials have said. The canalway has its own building and interpretive center near the corner of Reds Road and Ferry Street. Biking trails are nearby.
Schuylerville leaders in the past have said that the idea is first to create a plan for the park and then use that plan to seek grants and other funding to make the improvements outlined in the plan.
Many of the amenities on the site, such as the youth center, have not been upgraded in years. Mayor Dan Carpenter wondered aloud in an interview last spring what could be done with the short section of the Old Champlain Canal that sits on the western edge of the park.
LA Group is a landscape architecture and engineering firm in Saratoga Springs that put together a team of other companies including Envision Architects which will be working on community and cultural planning; Foit-Albert Associates, which will work on waterfront and traffic analyses; and Flatley Read, working on historic interpretation, the planning bid says.
The park is the location of the surrender of British General John Burgoyne following the Battle of Saratoga. The british army laid down arms on the field there. Therefore, the park requires both historical and recreational uses.
The many facets of the plan will consider what the park requires in terms of: traffic and parking; landscape and lighting; pedestrian accessibility and safety; sports infrastructure; waterfront improvements; clean-up and access to the Old Champlain Canal; informational and interpretive signage; and implementation strategies, among others.
The planning begins with site visits and community discussions in August. In the fall, the planning will include community workshops, a draft master plan and public meetings. The final master plan is due in January, the application materials say. The planning team will report monthly to village leaders.
The first public meeting is Aug. 18, 7 p.m., at the Village of Schuylerville Town Hall, 35 Spring St.
LA Group has been involved in the planning since the earliest phases of park redevelopment in 2005, their application says. The planing is being paid for with a state grant of $48,750 from the state matched by $16,250 from the village. Some of the village payment will come as “in-kind” payments, meaning that time spent by staff or by official work of commissioners will apply to that amount.
In total, the bid from the team of four companies comes to $65,000.