After two months of neighborhood workshops, community meetings and master plan revisions, renovations that seek modernize and update eight neighborhood parks are finally underway this week throughout downtown Grand Rapids, including Cherry, Fuller, Garfield, Highland, Lincoln, Roosevelt, Westown Commons and Wilcox parks.
“We did sort of a grand unveiling of the plan in early December and those plans are very much informed by those different neighborhood groups coming together and talking about their priorities for the parks in their neighborhoods,” says Executive Director Steve Faber of
Friends of Grand Rapids Parks, who worked alongside the
Grand Rapids Parks & Recreation Department and Grand Rapids Parks & Recreation Advisory Board to host the series of eight workshops that hoped to help with the response to a
60 percent voter approved property millage designated for parks, pools and playgrounds and expected to generate an additional $4 annually.
Neighborhood Planning Teams were formed with residents from each park's neighborhood and teamed up with local design firms
VIRIDIS and
Progressive AE to help verify concept plans
and identify improvement priority projects for each park based on what the neighbors there said they wanted or needed during these community forums.
So, for Garfield Park, a new basketball court and more open places for groups to gather together win the first priority projects, while six out of eight total parks are pushing to create an accessible water resource through a "splash pad" or water playground.
“You want to have the overall context of the plan in place, but focus on the top priorities specific to each neighborhood park,” he says, adding that while for Garfield Park that means a new basketball court and more places to spend time in groups, for six out of the eight parks receiving renovations, the "splash pad" or water playground was given top priority as a new, accessible water resource for the community members living there.
Other reconstruction plans include updating equipment and facilities, including replacing or restoring restrooms, drinking fountains and playground, expanding or installing rain gardens, walking paths, path lighting and benches, improved green space, hard surface courts and fields, and new tree plantings.
Faber says because of the community meetings, neighborhood residents are still engaged with the renovation projects even while construction is underway, sometimes calling him to offer a quick update on progress across the street.
“We’ve got some watchful eyes out there now that these projects have broken ground,” he says.
The projects all have varying competition dates, but all new amenities are scheduled to be ready for use by mid-August. For more information on individual park upgrades, or to see the entire Grand Rapids Parks & Recreation Master Plan and Green Grand Rapids Master Plan, visit www.friendsofgrparks.org or grcity.us.
Written by Anya Zentmeyer, Development News Editor
Images Courtesy of Friends of Grand Rapids Parks/City of Grand Rapids Parks & Recreation
Related articles:
Parks with benefits: How neighborhood identity factors into planning a socially productive park
Enjoy this story?
Sign up for free solutions-based reporting in your inbox each week.