Services district plans to give Mary Laveroni Park a makeover

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Groveland Community Services District is touting ambitious plans for improvements at Mary Laveroni Community Park, including a seating-meadow amphitheater, an adventure center, and trails connecting to Pine Mountain Lake and a Hetch Hetchy Railroad Trail. The elected board of the public agency that manages water, sewer, fire, and parks in the Groveland area approved seeking $2.9 million in rural recreation and tourism program grant funds for phase one of the plan in October, and the Tuolumne County Blue Zones Project, backed by Adventist Health Sonora, put its support of the grant application in writing in January. The proposed first phase of park improvements are intended as a start to “larger active mobility connections” on GCSD prop

erty, Pete Kampa, the district’s general manager, said. Phase two will include a trail network to link the community of Pine Mountain Lake, new Groveland Community Resilience Center, Groveland and Big Oak Flat residential areas to downtown Groveland, with access to grocery stores, downtown businesses, the school, and the park. The main section of trail from Mary Laveroni Community Park will be fully accessible for the disabled and include lighting to extend hours of use safely into dusk, Kampa said. The main t `rail will also link a new sports complex planned adjacent to the existing dog park and baseball field, slated for funding in phase three of the project. The project, as proposed, is billed as a way to underscore Groveland’s role as a gateway to Yosemite National Park, “a pre-Yosemite destination.” It includes an adventure center with manufactured bouldering features connected by slackline netting features for people of all ages. Illustrations prepared for the proposed project show that designers intend a multi-use trail for walkers and bicyclists to double as an emergency evacuation route for people in motor vehicles in the event of a catastrophic fire or other disaster. “The Blue Zones project is a community-wide well-being improvement initiative designed to help make healthy choices easier for everyone in our community,” Kristi Conforti, a public policy advocate for Blue Zones Tuolumne County, said in the project’s Jan. 19 letter of support to GCSD. “We partner with agencies such as GCSD who support changes and create opportunities that lead to those healthier options,” Conforti said. “One of the key focus

areas is to ensure safe and easy accessibility within our built environment to parks, trails, bike paths, and other recreational opportunities. It is important that natural movement be available and encouraged throughout the community.” The GCSD project addresses a critical missing piece of healthy infrastructure in the built environment of Groveland, Conforti said. The project intends to create safe, accessible, walkable paths within the park that will connect the upper park to the lower park with a new hillside amphitheater, flex/event court, trailhead seating and foothill play/adventure zone. The GCSD project provides linkage and signage to a trail network planned to link residential areas to downtown with easy access to grocery stores, downtown businesses, the school, and the park, Conforti said. “We are working closely with GCSD to ensure that this active transportation trail system is inclusive to community members and visitors of all ages and capabilities, allowing everyone the option to choose natural movement,” Conforti said in the Blue Zones project’s letter. According to GCSD staff, the Hetch Hetchy Railroad Trail, Phase 1 and Adventure Center at Mary Laveroni Community Park, if funded, will enhance and support tourism, and offer community members healthy, active transportation alternatives. The first phase of the project would create a pedestrian and bicycle trail on GCSD-owned property. “The Tuolumne County Blue Zones Project is inspired by the work the Groveland Community Service District is doing in the South County,” Tyler Summersett, executive director of the project in Tuolumne County, said Monday. “The project they are working on is exactly the type of improvement that will lead to more walking and bicycling in the community,” Summersett said. “The Blue Zones Project model is designed to offer support to project leads, such as GCSD, in making our communities healthier places to live, work and play. We are supporting them with our letter of support, technical assistance in project design, community outreach and input and ultimately, if awarded, events utilizing the trail.” The GCSD Hetch Hetchy Railroad Trail, Phase 1 and Adventure Center at Mary Laveroni Community Park plan is seeking $2.9 million in funding from the state parks Rural Recreation and Tourism Program. The state program’s intent is to create new recreation opportunities in rural communities to support health-related and economic goals. It’s funded by Proposition 68, the voter-approved 2018 Bond Act that focused on droughts, water, parks, climate, coastal protection, and outdoors access for all. “One of the areas that Blue Zones Project focuses energy and expertise is helping to make healthy choices easier to make,” Summersett said. “The GCSD project proposes to connect the Pine Mountain Lake subdivision, about 3,600 lots, to the rest of the community with their path, allowing community members to walk or bike to downtown Groveland, to Mary Laveroni Park, and the health clinic, among other important community destinations. “We believe this project will result in more community members walking, bicycling and connecting with one another,” Summersett said.