Seng, Hochgesang parks will stay Jasper parks

Jasper is dropping plans to repurpose Seng Park and Hochgesang Park, and both neighborhood properties will stay parks.

The Jasper Park Board announced the decision at its Tuesday, Nov. 10, meeting, after city officials met with property owners around both parks. The move reverses a direction the board set in June, when it voted to ask neighbors to sign off on opening the two underutilized lots to other uses.

Parks and Recreation Director Tom Moorman said that after hearing from the neighbors at the meetings hosted in September, it was determined that both properties will remain parks, and City Attorney Renee Kabrick will work through the process to ensure they do.

“I think in summation, we hear you loud and clear, and they will remain parks,” Board President Roger Seger told neighbors in the audience.

In a follow-up interview, Moorman said neighbors told the city they favored keeping the parks rather than losing them. He said it was “pretty easy” once the city weighed that against the cost involved.

Hochgesang Park, near St. James Avenue in the Holy Family area, covers just under two acres, according to Moorman. Seng Park, at Genevieve Avenue and Giesler Road, covers about three-quarters of an acre.

The two parks face different legal situations, Kabrick explained at Tuesday’s meeting.

The city holds clear title to Hochgesang Park, which was deeded to the city in 1948. But the subdivision covenants require that it be used for recreational purposes. Changing the use would have required approval from surrounding lot owners, and that path is now off the table.

“City owns the park, so it will be maintained as it has been maintained,” Kabrick said.

Moorman said the lot owners in the Hochgesang addition were not willing to agree to a change.

Seng Park, listed as Lot No. 14 in Seng’s Heights Subdivision, is more complicated. The city holds the deed but not clear legal title. The land is technically owned by the surrounding property owners, and it is platted for recreational use only.

“In order for the city to maintain a park, any property for that matter, we need to have ownership of it,” Kabrick told the board.

She said she will work with property owners over what she hopes will be the next year to resolve the title.

Moorman said the city is asking owners to sign their interests over to the city. In exchange, the city would record a restriction requiring that the land remain a park or recreational area permanently, similar to the covenant at Hochgesang. He said Kabrick has raised concerns about whether, from an insurance or State Board of Accounts standpoint, the city should keep maintaining property it does not own.

“In order for the city to maintain a park, any property for that matter, we need to have ownership of it,” Kabrick said at the recent park board meeting.

In June, the board voted to ask Seng Park’s 41 surrounding property owners to sign quitclaim deeds. A transfer requires unanimous agreement. At that meeting, Kabrick said that if the city could not get every signature, it could notify owners that the property was theirs to maintain.

Responses to letters sent this summer led the city to host a public informational meeting on Seng Park’s future Sept. 30 at the Jasper Train Depot. At the time, Kabrick said many preferred that the land remain a park.

At Tuesdays meeting, Seger said improvements could come funds are available and asked neighbors to work with the city, adding that it would take time.

Moorman said nothing is planned for either park in the near term.

“There won’t be anything unless our budgets start to open up a little bit,” he said.