The public comment period on plans for the future of a new Hamilton County park in Westwood is nearing its end. You have until Dec. 1 to complete a survey on what should be done with the former Gamble estate on Werk Road.
The 22-acre property opened to the public in April but remains undeveloped. Great Parks has been collecting feedback and surveys on what people would like to see in the new park there.
Survey questions range from how you use park facilities to what kinds of amenities you'd like the park — for now just being referred to as the Werk Road Great Park — to have.
Local historian Greg Hand is president of the Westwood Community Urban Redevelopment Corporation (WestCURC), one of the organizations involved with Great Parks in determining how the park will be developed. He also lives next to the Werk Road park and says he sees about 10-15 people walking along the path there daily.
"We're getting near the end of the survey," he notes. "They would like to have all of the surveys filled out by the end of November so that they can start doing data analysis, analyzing the responses and determining what people think the priorities are."
According to an update received Tuesday, some 600 survey responses have already been collected, Hand reports. He says an advisory committee expects to see that data sometime in the spring.
"That hits the budget cycle, as I understand it, for the park district, and then that's where they do the reality check on what the requests are and what's affordable. Then a plan for the park should be available by the end of next summer."
Of course, the park also needs a permanent name. The property was the former estate of the late James N. Gamble, son of Procter & Gamble co-founder James Gamble.
Hand says naming the park might seem obvious to some, but others point out there is a catch.
"As soon as people express that interest in naming it for the Gambles, they realize that that creates kind of a conflict because just down the road is the brand new Gamble (Montessori) High School," Hand points out. "So naming two things 'Gamble' that close to one another may be an issue.
"To differentiate the park from the high school, the terminology of Werk Road Park is starting to be a little more common, but as far as going forward in the future, I have not heard a consensus other than the suggestion for Gamble."
The Gamble house was demolished in 2013 after a long fight between Cincinnati, the Greenacres Foundation and community members. James N. Gamble lived in the 13-room Victorian mansion from 1875 until he died in 1932.
