By KEITH GRANT
Nearly 100 new, younger trees will reportedly be planted over a two-block stretch before the project is complete.
"They're in pretty sad shape," City Manager Ed Eaton said. "If you look closely, you see a lot of dead wood. You could probably put your fist through in some parts."
Located along the 100 block of East Park Avenue, the trees are not only reportedly diseased--Eaton said they suffer from the illness anthracnos--but take a beating located between parking spaces, often getting hit by cars.
Eaton said the City will take the trees out and resurface the lot, possibly before the year's end. As part of the refurbishing, the City will then plant younger trees like those in the parking mall opposite Lancer's Insurance and CVS. That planting and refurbishment will extend from Riverside to Monroe Boulevard.
"It'll look better, and we'll be getting more parking spaces to boot," he said.
Public works department has drawn up tentative plans for the project, Eaton said. Each mall will become a single long strip, as opposed to the current configuration which features exits in the middle of the block. This is expected to add several extra parking spaces.
Entrances and exits for the Long Beach Rd. to Monroe lot will further be reconfigured. As currently laid out, cars must enter the lot with a sharp left turn just before hitting Long Beach Rd. going west, right where a half-dozen signs say "No Left Turn."
The renovation of the movie theatre into a four-screen multiplex is set to begin in October, the City Manager reported. Plans were approved this past spring as developers officially canned ideas of a seven-plex, a project which had been greenlighted two years ago.
The current Park Avenue Twin and the neighboring former home of Roy Rogers restaurant will be gutted and converted into a 600-seat, four-screener under the half-million dollar plan. The plan, which required several variances, was unanimously approved after a presentation at the May 24 meeting of the Zoning Board of Appeals.
The project will be developed by Philips International, the company currently negotiating with city officials to develop a hotel/condominium complex on the beachfront Superblock property.
The Zoning Board granted developers a parking variance, without which they would be required to provide about 150 off-street parking spaces. Twenty-seven new spaces are to be provided in the empty lot directly behind the building, but developers are relying on Park Avenue to contain enough vacant spots to accommodate the incoming crowds.
