Noblesville proposes improvements for Seminary Park

Public meeting to be held at City Hall on Aug. 29 . . .

Earlier this year, the city was testing the waters on a potential housing development on part of the ground at Seminary Park. For those who remember, the project ultimately died, but the controversy surrounding it left many community members frustrated.

When news of this idea first broke, the calls and e-mails to City Hall started coming in.

Letters to the editor and editorial columns ran in local papers – one written by yours truly. Residents also took to social media to express their dissatisfaction. From this outreach, the message was clear that Seminary Park held a special place in our community, especially among downtown residents, and needed to be preserved.

Between the two of us, Mayor Ditslear and I personally spoke with dozens of residents, community leaders and historians. While I’m proud of our city departments for thinking outside the box on that particular proposal – I’m even more proud of what we have done since.

Our Parks and Planning departments came together to take a fresh look at Seminary Park, its current usage and to assess what makes Seminary so special. And also determine how to improve the park so that it becomes an even stronger asset that sees greater usage going forward. With the help of a landscape architect student from Ball State University who has interned with the City of Noblesville since May, our staff has created an initial design with a list of potential improvements to Seminary that, if approved, could include:

• More trees, benches and picnic tables to create more shaded seating;
• More exploration and connectivity via a secondary path to wind through the park;
• More vibrant sights, sounds and smells by creating butterfly and sensory gardens;
• More lighting with vintage-looking Edison Bulbs to improve safety and illuminate the beauty of the park for activation in the early evening hours; and
• More historical signage and other ways to honor our past. Features such as a wrought-iron fence and arched gateway could harken visitors back to the site of the former school built in 1852 and then newly built again on-site in 1870 (that came to be known as Second Ward School before it too was demolished in 1969).

Other enhancements to Seminary could include improvements to the gazebo, the addition of a dog station and bike racks as well an expanded playground. But even with these changes, based on the earlier feedback we received, the park should still allow for open green space.

A longtime event held at Seminary, Shakespeare in the Park, moved to Federal Hill Commons for its 25th annual production. However, new events could be programmed at Seminary for year-round activation, such as a spring or summertime walking art gallery, a pumpkin-carving contest in the fall and other activities through the winter months.

We owe thanks to the creativity and landscape design expertise of our intern, Samantha Fee, working under the guidance of Planning Director Sarah Reed and Parks Director Brandon Bennett. This initial design that fuses art, function and sustainability is a starting point that we’ve shared with members of the Noblesville Parks Board and volunteers serving on the Downtown District Committee organized by Common Council President Megan Wiles – including some residents from the downtown area and other Council members.

Now it’s your turn. Our next step is to host a public meeting from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. on Aug. 29 at Noblesville City Hall in Rooms A213/A214. City staff will go over the research behind the proposal. We will answer questions and take feedback on what residents would like to see.

After receiving feedback, staff will then complete a formal budget estimate for design, construction and maintenance and bring the final proposal to our Common Council for consideration.

We hope you take part in helping shape this new vision for Seminary Park, which we believe can honor the site’s history like never before. And we welcome the community’s involvement in the new Seminary Park to ensure its preservation for the years to come.