New plans in place to improve Durand Eastman Beach Park

ROCHESTER, N.Y. (WROC) — The city of Rochester wants to improve Durand Eastman Park for the general public. They have implemented a three part project to hopefully improve the quality of the park. And the first part of the project is to improve the beach house.

“There’s actually three parts to the project. There’s the beach house, where we have funding for the final design of a permanent structure to support the bathing beach. And that’s lifeguard facilities, first aid, changing rooms, shower spaces,” says Jeff Mroczek, who is the senior landscape architect on the project.

The beach house is in need of major improvements, as it hasn’t been updated since the 2007 Master Plan.

“The beach house is a needed improvement. We opened the beach in 2006 for a public bathing beach,” says Mroczek. “So to make it a “fully permanent” facility, we have to have a permanent facility for lifeguards and beach users.”

The city of Rochester had a consultant team go out and put up tables along the length of the beach just to get some initial feedback before they start the project.

“And what we found out was people really like Durand because it’s a little less structure than like Charlotte,” Mroczek says. ”Basically just wanted to see improvements to the parking, beach access is always a big issue because there is no formal beach access at this point and just more improvement for general amenities.”

The city of Rochester will hold a meeting on Wednesday, July 22 about the plans and will encourage the public to submit their feedback. If you are unable to attend the meeting, you can still give them feedback.

“We’re asking the public to submit their comments up to 2 weeks after the public meeting,” says Mroczek.

The city of Rochester will be holding the public meeting on Wednesday, July 22 from 6:00 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. at Camp Eastman Kusak Lodge. If you are unable to attend in person, there is a Zoom that you can join. You can click here for the rest of the details about this meeting.

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