New city park slated for former South Hill/Heritage Hill parking lot

Deborah Johnson Wood

A 2.25-acre parking lot at Madison Avenue SE and Pleasant Street SE will soon be a new Grand Rapids city park. The property is in the heart of an area identified by Green Grand Rapids as deficient in green space, and is part of the 415 Franklin property (former Department of Human Services) acquired from Kent County by the city of Grand Rapids last year.

A design charrette on February 20 drew 50 adults and 40 children to voice their ideas about the park's design. The purpose of the charrette, sponsored by Friends of Grand Rapids Parks, South Hill Neighborhood Association, Heritage Hill Neighborhood Association and the City of Grand Rapids Parks and Recreation Department, was to present ideas for the park to design consultants O'Boyle, Cowell, Blalock & Associates.

"We held some pre-charrette meetings with a small planning team, we have a Facebook group for the park and we tapped into that energy, and we put out a pre-survey online, all to get ideas so the designers had some ideas for the meeting," says Steve Faber, executive director of Friends of Grand Rapids Parks.

"The property is partly in Heritage Hill and partly in South Hill and the neighborhoods didn't want water playgrounds or basketball courts," Faber says.

Faber says the neighbors want clear sight lines across the park for neighborhood safety, so most of the park will be open space. One section features a playground for kids ages two to 10; other sections have walking paths, a small slope for sledding and a proposed perennial exchange garden. Architectural elements at the entrance at Madison and Pleasant will draw from architectural influences of the surrounding neighborhoods.

Four City High students studying sustainable playgrounds asked the children at the charrette to design their ideal playground. Faber hopes to incorporate some of the high school students' findings in the park design.

Next steps are to add the park to the Parks and Recreation Master Plan by March 13 in order to qualify for possible state grants, brownfield tax credits and other funding.

Source: Steve Faber, Friends of Grand Rapids Parks

Deborah Johnson Wood is development news editor for Rapid Growth Media. She can be contacted at [email protected]. Have a development news tip for Rapid Growth? Contact us at [email protected].