CRANBERRY TWP — The township is planning an estimated $2.49 million project in Graham Park in conjunction with the 2017 Cranberry Township Community Chest project of the year.

Lorin Meeder, township environmental programs coordinator, presented the preliminary plans to the supervisors Thursday night.

The next project of the year, which was announced earlier this year, will be construction of the CTCC SportCourts at Graham Park.

The organization hopes to raise $750,000 in donations and grants to build numerous courts in an unused area near the park’s entrance. The number and type of courts will depend on public feedback and how much money is raised, but the initial plans called for pickleball, tennis, basketball, bocce, shuffleboard, horseshoe and cornhole courts.

Meanwhile the township is moving forward with plans for other improvements to the park, including new sidewalks, parking lots, new restrooms and storage building, and a community garden.

The project, which will be reviewed by the township’s planning advisory commission in coming months, will be divided into two contracts, Meeder said. A land development contract will include infrastructure, stormwater management, restrooms and the garden, and is anticipated to cost $1.68 million. A separate contract will be bid for parking and road work improvements closer to the park’s baseball diamonds and the Miracle League field.

The township staff saw a need for more parking, including handicap-accessible parking, near the Miracle League field, said Jason Kratsas, township director of engineering and environmental services.

To make that possible, they are proposing moving the road in that area.

“Instead of building a parking lot where there is nothing right now, we’re actually taking Graham Park Drive and pushing it as far to the west as we can so that we can keep the parking on the side of the road where the fields and the uses are,” he said.

Proposed new features adjacent to the planned sports courts include a community garden and an outdoor classroom and wetland trail.

Meeder said he envisions the community garden as an area where residents will come to plant vegetables to share.

“The community garden, we will need people to help out with that,” he said.

An asphalt trail would connect the courts area to the Brush Creek Trail. The second phase of the trail was paved earlier this year and was immediately popular.

“Funny how popular the trail system is, we had people walking on it as we were still building it, they were dodging triaxle trucks,” Meeder said.

That project came in under its $218,000 budget and the township hopes to receive a $100,000 Department of Conservation and Natural Resources reimbursement grant, he said.

The township’s part of the project will include grading and stormwater management on the site, but the planning and construction of the actual courts will be done by the Community Chest.