The city is still committed to making the new 43 acre Fred Richards Park a wetland preserve, but officials are no longer pursuing the formal wetland banking process. In 2023, the city council approved seeking a wetland mitigation bank at the park. A mitigation bank is a restored or enhanced wetland area that can be used to offset impacts to other wetlands. Over the past few years, the city submitted three full applications to regulators. However, each was denied because the evolving park designs couldn't meet all of the program strict requirements. Last month, staff recommended withdrawing from the application process, saying further attempts would likely be costly and unsuccessful. Even so, the design of the 43 acre park will continue to center on creating a high quality wetland preserve. >> We're working with native and um climate resilient plantings. So, they're going to be some upland areas, so you're going to see some wild flowers. Um, you're also going to see some of the wetter areas, so some of what people typically think of as a wetland. So, the cattails and the sedges and and the rushes. Um, so a little bit of uh variability in all the different ecoypes. Um, but one other piece too is we're taking all of what's existing and removing any invasive species. So, you'll probably even see there's some buckthornne behind me. Um, those will all be removed as part of this process. Um, and a sustainable native habitat will be put in. Also last month, the council awarded a contract to HNU Construction for early earthwork, marking an important step in moving the $17.7 million project forward.