BY SCOTT SULLIVAN EDITOR
The Saugatuck Township Board June 12 hired Viridis Design Group for $10,500 to prepare a final landscape design for now-undeveloped 7.5-acre Amalanchier Park next to Riverside Cemetery at 3461 Clearbrook Drive.
It will be incorporated into Blue Star Trail engineer/architect C2AE’s site design package for linking the nonmotorized recreational trail from Holland Street east to Blue Star Highway.
The now-wooded site north of North Street with Moore’s Creek access via natural surface trails is being eyed as a users’ rest site with crushed-stone paths and a plaza, bike racks, a trash/recycling receptacle, benches, a native stone seat/retaining wall, lawn and native rain garden.
Natural hillsides slope down to Goshorn Creek, which bisects the park and provides further nature views.
The township will draw on Michigan Natural Resources Trust Fund dollars for the design work by Viridis, which contracted with it, cities of Douglas and Saugatuck, plus Saugatuck Public Schools on this winter’s newly-passed Tri-Community Parks and Recreation Plan.
Viridis also helped lay out the now-being-built roundabout at Old Allegan Road and Blue Star Highway.
An opinion of probable cost for the Amalanchier project will be prepared for review as well.
