Anchorage Daily News

If the many interests can agree, Cuddy Family Midtown Park will become home to an Olympic-sized speedskating oval. It will also feature a pond, a plaza, a hilly trail and an amphitheater.

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And it may forge a special relationship with the library, with parking reconfigured so that a walkway leads from the library fountain into the park.

The new plan for this scenic but under-used piece of open space next to Loussac Library advanced Wednesday when a city committee adopted it.

"This park will be wildly popular," predicted Art Geuss, a former city parks commissioner and one of two people who have been nurturing the creation and shape of this piece of property for about 25 years.

The city brought together people such as Geuss, business owners from around the park and some folks from a different crowd -- people looking for a place to put a speedskating oval -- to update a master plan for the 15 acres.

In November, the city invited national consultants Project for Public Spaces of New York City to lead a discussion about the park's future and make some recommendations.

Project for Public Spaces recommended the park make room for many different activities, have a focal point and provide more prominent access from places around the park, such as the library and a post office.

The park is laid out between Denali and A streets, 36th Avenue and Tudor Road and is largely hidden from view by big-box stores, chain-link fences and trees.

At first, some Midtown Park Advisory Committee members opposed the notion of including a speedskating oval. Tamas Deak, a landscape architect and one of four designers of the original master plan, said the park needed a flexible design so it could be used for many different things. He had earlier suggested a skating oval would cater to limited use.

Plus, the initial suggestion for the oval would have stretched it diagonally across much of the park's southern open field. Done like that, the national consultants felt, it would dominate and detract from other uses, said Dwayne Adams of Land Design North, a local landscape architecture firm working with the New York team.

"They felt if it could be sequestered to one side, it would be one of many uses," and would add to the park, he said.

The speedskating backers won a $950,000 federal appropriation last year, with help from Sen. Ted Stevens, to build an oval somewhere in Anchorage.

They like the Midtown location because it's central, surrounded by businesses and on good soil, said Jim Renkert, a member of Anchorage Skates and the Midtown Park Committee.

"Most of the activity we envision would be recreational skating," he said, with designated times for speedskating practice and events.

In the end, the 400-meter oval fit on the western edge of the park, in a north-south alignment, and that seemed to still opposition.

But another piece of the plan, the park's relationship to the library, promises to draw some controversy.

The park planners propose to reconfigure the library parking lot so that a walkway crosses down the middle and leads from the library fountain into the park. The promenade across the library lot would give library patrons a place to walk too, Adams said.

Now, he said, "You have to walk down the drive lanes and between cars to get to the library."

Librarian Art Weeks said senior library staff members are worried about sharing parking spaces with the park because library patrons, especially when the Anchorage Assembly meets, max out the parking lot.

And they're concerned that drivers will have more difficulty navigating the lot because they'll have to circle around the promenade. The Library Advisory Board has yet to see the plans, Weeks said.

The plan will also go to the city Parks and Recreation Commission.

Besides a speedskating oval and a central plaza and promenade, the park would have a building of some sort; a shapely pond that spills out onto library woods; a children's play area; and two spots for concerts or bigger events, an amphitheater and a wide, broad lawn. The amphitheater is mostly built. Trails will also extend through the park.

Altogether, Adams estimated developing the park could cost around $7 million.

So far, the city has the $950,000 for the speedskating oval and $300,000 from J&L Properties for Midtown Park improvements, said city parks director Jeff Dillon.

The park has developed gradually through the work of conservationists, neighbors, planners and business people. The acreage was assembled in pieces beginning in 1987.

The concept "from Day One" was to create a park people would use winter and summer, said Geuss, who with Helen Nienhueser was the original lobbyist for creating the park.

He said it's tremendous that so many different activities are planned, from skating to jogging.

"Activities make parks successful," he said. "We don't want a park that just sits there."

Daily News reporter Rosemary Shinohara can be reached at rshinohara@adn.com or 257-4340.