UK Department of Landscape Architecture (UKLA) has been partnering with the Huntertown Community Interpretive Park (HCIP) Committee since 2020 to envision the former African-American hamlet community site of Huntertown now as a 40-acre public open space. With the support of the 2021 UK Sustainability Challenge Grant, UKLA led various aspects of the public park planning, design, and implementation (2021-2024) to reflect and represent the community’s past footprints on the landscape and further explored environmental enhancements needed. Throughout the project period, the HCIP Committee, city and county leaders, volunteers, and residents were excited to see the Huntertown Community Interpretive Park incrementally becoming a part of their culture, heritage, and future, as projects such as HCIP take much time, effort, and patience to plan and build capacity. 

The collaborative UK and HCIP committee effort since the summer of 2020 continued and accomplished a second season for bioswale planting and bioswale signage development. Most of the first season planting from the previous year survived, and volunteers planted another batch of plants in other sections of the bioswale in the “Bottoms” area. UKLA also designed an environmental education signage informing what a bioswale is and the committee secured a grant from the Woodford County Community Fund to build and install the sign. The HCIP Committee continued to host the annual Turkey Trot 5K run, which demonstrates continued interest from the community, and help advocate for the building of the park. The committee’s fundraising efforts ($33,000) and volunteers' commitments (2,000 hours) continued toward implementing the pubic space design project. 

For the intermediate terms, the UKLA design proposals and SCG team efforts have provided a strong foundation to support the placemaking efforts for Versailles-Woodford County residents. The development of HCIP has also created a historical and cultural storytelling destination for the broader central Kentucky region.