Protestor at a Beavers in Lents meeting last spring.
  • Protestor at a Beavers in Lents meeting last spring.
Remember the heady times of last spring, when the city and Merritt Paulson proposed building the new Beaver's stadium with urban renewal money in Lents Park?

The deal fell through in part because keeping the 38-acre park as open space had a lot of support among neighbors, who complained loudly that the city Parks Department had neglected their beloved park.

Last night Parks Department Commissioner Nick Fish announced a major boon to little Lents: $100,000 for master planning the park, much of which will come from urban renewal funds. As the neighborhood association's press release notes, the last master plan for Lents Park was drafted in 1981, right at the time that that construction of Interstate 205 cut through the heart of the neighborhood.