To the editor:

The editorial headed “Perfect park” in the Oct. 30 Journal-World was a pleasure to read. Clenece Hills did a first-class job with “The Point” to be the anchor at the northwest corner of what should be the crown jewel of our city – our Lawrence Central Park.

I was pleased to be involved in the development of “Mapping the Future” for Lawrence back on Dec. 11, 2005. The concept of a proposed greenbelt Central Park stretching from Clinton Lake to and including the Baker Wetlands was first suggested at that time.

We should look on our Central Park as a great asset for Lawrence, serving both the city and the large attractive area for projected development south of the Wakarusa. Over the next 20-plus years, we will need to build four-lane extensions of Wakarusa Drive, Kasold Drive, Louisiana Street and Haskell Avenue. These would connect with a new four-lane 47th Street, which would become South Lawrence’s major east-west route extending to Johnson County. South Lawrence developments would be closer to downtown than the current northwest Lawrence developments.

As we look into the future, increasing heavy traffic will use these new north-south extensions. They need to be carefully planned to give ready access to the different parts of the Central Park while, as the editorial says, minimizing disturbance to the unique beauty and specialness of our Lawrence Central Park.

Les Hannon,

Lawrence