Master Plan Highlight
"The Fork:" Master Plan Highlight of the Quarter
Each edition of our quarterly e-newsletter will profile some aspect of the master plan as a way of introducing our readers to the richness and variety of that plan. With amenities that range from environmental restoration to sports fields to roads and trails, this is our way of showing you some of the many assets "The Fork" master plan will create for our city and the surrounding region.
In this edition, we present what our planners have labeled "The Egg Lawn," after its unique shape. This area, just minutes south of Shelbyville Road, in the bottomlands beside I-64, will provide a variety of recreational amenities, akin to what Seneca Park provides to the Highlands and St. Matthews. The dominant feature of the park is the proposed 81-acre oval-shaped lawn encircled by two rings of trees and enclosed by a reforested edge. The lawn will be a major focal point for The Fork, and is designated as an active recreational development area. The Egg Lawn will be designed as a large clearing in the woods, and will be framed by reforested lands around the periphery. The edges and central lawn area will be maintained as a manicured lawn to express its formality. Possible ball fields will be maintained accordingly and other peripheral areas will be managed as meadow. The Egg Lawn will accommodate a wide variety of programmed uses such as community festivals, balloon launches, outdoor concerts or performances, and ball fields.
The lawn will be encircled by a promenade, the Park Drive, and the Louisville Loop on the outside, allowing pedestrian, vehicular, and recreational traffic to flow around the lawn without interrupting programmed events. The promenade will be a broad walkway with seating and associated shrub and grass plantings flanked by rows of trees that provide shady places from which to sit and view activities on the lawn. Removed from the vehicular traffic of the park drive and the more intense use of the Louisville Loop, the promenade will provide a quiet place for relaxation and contemplation. A proposed community or recreation center at the edge of the lawn on an axis with the proposed Sport Walk will house restrooms, an indoor gathering space, picnicking space, a concession stand, a café, and other public uses.
The Egg Lawn will be accessed from South Beckley Station road, Wibble Hill Road, and the park drive from the north and south. Major environmental enhancements include the expanded riparian buffer at Floyds Fork and tributary streams and upland reforestation throughout the area. The existing drainage swale in the Lawn will be developed as a point of interest and as an environmental corridor within the Egg Lawn. Proposed gaps in the reforested areas along I-64 will provide filtered views to The Fork and the Egg Lawn for motorists driving along I-64. In addition to the amenities within the Egg Lawn, it will also serve as a major access point for all of the recreational trails—canoe, bike, hiking—that stretch north and south along the 20 mile greenway.