After a month of deliberation, there’s a winner in the competition to redesign St. James Park — almost.

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San Jose: St. James Park redesign finalists picked CMG Landscape Architecture’s plan to reinvent the downtown San Jose park has emerged as the favorite of the competition’s eight-person jury, which included design professionals, community members and city staff. But the decision has been protested by one of the four competing design groups, and the city will not make a final decision until the protest is resolved.

The jury first met Oct. 15 to hear presentations from the four competing design groups and make a decision, and two proposals — CMG’s and that of !melk Fr-ee — came out as the top picks. The jury reconvened this month to hash it out and the competitors were notified of the recommendation Nov. 4.

However, a protest was received from one of the teams on Sunday, the final day it could be filed, and that may take weeks to resolve. The city isn’t saying yet which group filed the protest, but you can bet it wasn’t CMG.

It’s another drama in the quest to reinvent one of San Jose’s oldest public spaces. Once considered a downtown jewel, St. James Park has gained a reputation over the past few decades for a growing homeless population despite efforts to make it more family-friendly.

CMG’s concept, titled “Remember/Imagine,” includes the Park Paseo, a path through the park that connects its existing monuments such as the McKinley statue and the Robert F. Kennedy memorial forum with new spaces and amenities including a dog park, a picnic grove and a playground. A fountain in the park’s center reimagines the fish sculptures that once occupied the current, dilapidated fountain — elevating them and using them to spout water onto playing kids below. It’s a nifty update that takes a good cue from the popular geyser fountain at Plaza de Cesar Chavez.

A key feature in all the designs was the inclusion of an outdoor performance pavilion in the northeast corner of the park — along St. James Street — that will be jointly developed by CMG, the city, Friends of Levitt Pavilion San Jose and the Mortimer & Mimi Levitt Foundation. The Levitt Pavilion venue will host at least 50 free concerts in the park every year and will feature a huge lawn for seating — and other uses like yoga or games when there’s not a concert.

CMG’s initial design also closes North Second Street to car traffic and proposes moving the southbound St. James VTA light-rail station south of St. John Street. Those changes and the estimated price tag on the initial design — $41 million — were probably the two biggest challenges on the plan’s horizon, at least until the protest was filed.