AUGUSTA — City leaders are reviewing a proposal to redevelop the vacant lot that was the former home to the YMCA on Winthrop Street.

Part-time city resident Robert Fuller is proposing to build a park with benches, a playground, picnic tables, flower gardens and a small parking lot.

The lot, which has been vacant for more than ten years, is across the street from the county courthouse and public library. In documents submitted to the city, Fuller says he will build the park and donate it to the city with an endowment if he gets permission from city leaders.

The proposal is markedly different from one submitted by Fuller three years ago in which he proposed to move a controversial statue to the grounds. Fuller had wanted to create a tribute to a distant cousin, Melville Weston Fuller, the Augusta-born U.S. Supreme Court chief justice who supported the “separate but equal” doctrine that institutionalized racial segregation for decades.

After a contentious public hearing, the planning board tabled the request and Fuller dropped the plan.

This time around, Fuller is proposing a public park on the one-acre lot. During a planning board meeting earlier this month, Fuller’s representative, Jim Coffin, said plans include a fence that will be locked in the winter months so that city staff does not have to maintain the property.

Coffin told the planning board that he does not know how much money Fuller will leave to cover maintenance costs. But he said Fuller plans to install granite curbing and steel fencing that will match other nearby properties.

“We’d like to start building certainly by August if we can,” Coffin said.

Planning board member Ben Bussiere said he is concerned that the park proposal might not fit the city’s comprehensive plan.

“I don’t see this as the highest and best use,” he said.

But board member Alison Nichols disagreed, saying she recently spent several days at the courthouse and that a park is good fit for the area.

“It would have been really nice to have a park there to leave during lunch and eat your lunch and relax and get away from the hubbub of the courtrooms,” she said.

The planning board approved a request for contract zone change, but more reviews by city council and planners are needed before the project can move forward.