Bee Cave to invest in Central Park improvements
The Bee Cave City Council voted on Sept. 12 to approve the new master plan for Central Park. The plan aims to make the park more accessible with additional parking, and to add more amenities like a splash pad, pickleball courts and an all-abilities play area.
The park’s design and architecture costs will come out to around $5 million, and designing will begin next summer with building likely to begin that fall, according to Assistant City Manager Lindsey Oskoui.
“We have been so excited to update our park and we know what the community wants thanks to surveys we’ve put out with hundreds of respondents,” said Mayor Kara King. “With these additional amenities, Bee Cave will not only be a destination for its shopping and dining, but for wonderful outdoor recreation as well.”
The council also approved a new official logo and tagline for the city. The new symbol for the city now serves its name, depicting a bee in a hexagon.
“Not only are bees vital to our ecosystem, but architecturally the hexagon shape found in the honeycomb is also the strongest shape known,” King said. “It represents who we are as a community, united and strong. When you come to Bee Cave, you’ll know exactly where you are, and we are excited to welcome you.”
Along with the new logo, the city now has a new tagline: “simply elevated,” which refers to its heightened geographical position in the Hill Country and its elevated quality of life. The city will allow licensing of the logo for businesses that want to sell Bee Cave-branded merchandise.
City officials also approved an equity agreement between Bee Cave and Lake Travis Fire Rescue. The Bee Cave Public Safety Project will create a joint facility for the fire and police departments in the area. The fire department will have 50% of the ownership of the property. The City Council will continue to discuss allocation of funds with Lake Travis Fire Rescue contributing approximately $1 million for property acquisition.
Bee Cave spokesperson Jenny Hoff said the city will contribute about $11 million in construction costs while Lake Travis Fire Rescue will spend about $6 million. She said those estimates are based on Bee Cave police using a larger portion of the building.
Hoff said the two parties will share costs on items such as land costs and shared-use areas such as workout space and showers.
This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Bee Cave to invest $5 million in Central Park improvements
