Dublin City Council recently directed staff to begin preparing construction documents for the new 4.6-acre neighborhood park named Positano Hills Park. The new park will be located on Valentano Drive and is expected to be completed by October 2012. The conceptual design for the $1.5M park was the culmination of a collaborative process involving Dublin residents, Richard Alcina from MPA Design, and Dublin Parks Development Coordinator Rosemary Alex. Councilperson Eric Swalwell proclaimed that the design represents a “new day and age in Dublin park building.”

According to Alcina of MPA Design, the park’s non-traditional design was sculpted to take full advantage of the gorgeous topography and views located just beyond the 4.6-acre enclave. The heart of the park will be the play areas which will be connected by low mounds on which kids can run and climb. The play areas will also include fun features such as a rope bridge, hill slide, bobble rider, talk tube, climbing rock, playhouse, and benches from which parents can supervise their kids.

In addition to the signature play areas, Positano Hills Park will also feature a vast open field that can be used for soccer and softball. A basketball court is also going to be built next to a lawn game area in the northwest corner of the park. Park visitors will appreciate the picnic & BBQ areas and bicycle parking facilities. Cars will need to park on the nearby streets.

The park will be semi-cloistered by canopy, shade, flowering accent, and evergreen screen trees with entrances strategically placed to maximize the gorgeous views of the surrounding hillsides. In addition to the trees, the 4.6-acre park at Positano will feature many other natural landscaping features.

Dublin City Council will need to provide additional project approvals as Positano’s first community park project reaches specific milestones. The project is currently $75,226 over budget. Unless additional funding can be allocated, some park features may need to be scaled back.

Every home sold at Positano adds $2,030 to the City of Dublin’s neighborhood park improvements special fund for East Dublin. Based on that number, the $75,226 budget gap could be bridged rather quickly given the brisk pace of new home sales at Positano. Dublin Parks Development Coordinator Rosemary Alex anticipates that park construction will start by February 2012.