The big picture
This year should be just as busy as 2024—the city’s parks and trails project dashboard has 50 projects in the queue, eight under construction, eight on hold and more being designed or planned, Coates said.
Multiple parks projects were announced or made significant progress in 2024, namely Grand Park, which is expected to break ground before the end of 2025 with kayaking ponds, a nature center and more in its 300-acre Community Hub.
“Our mission is creating wellbeing through play,” Coates said.
One of the ways the city’s parks and recreation team works toward that mission is by connecting the community through hike and bike trails, she said. Coates said the start of the COVID-19 pandemic showed that open space and parkland can be critical because it allowed people to work out or do similar activities without going to a gym.
Another major project, Northwest Community Park, is expected to break ground Jan. 22. The park will soon include a 5K-sized trail, bike skills tracks and an amphitheater.
“You essentially will be able to take your very youngest kids who are beginning bike riders, put them in the bike park and teach them skills and they have the capacity to grow as cyclists,” Coates said.
City officials approved two construction contracts for the park—$3.45 million for the bike trails and $34.21 million for the rest—in November.
“Anytime that we can get more amenities and different types of trail systems and more amenities at our trail systems that provide experiences for all users, that’s a win for us,” said Jacob Nilz, president of the Dallas Off-Road Bike Association, which maintains the park’s trails.
Zooming out
Connectivity through trails and park spaces is also an amenity for Frisco visitors and workers, not just residents, Coates said.
“It’s something that as businesses are coming in, they’re looking at quality of life and parkland contributes to that,” she said.
Open spaces make developments more resilient, Planning Director John Lettelleir said.
“What’s been developing in the market is, ‘give the employees a reason to be at work,’” he said.
Open space is a city ordinance-mandated requirement in Frisco. Some developments meet the requirement through parks, such as Kaleidoscope Park inside Hall Park and the incoming The Mix development, which proposed a multi-acre central park.
DORBA and its network of volunteers maintain over 200 miles of hike and bike trails across North Texas and advocate for accessible green space, Nilz said. Green space access can positively impact a community’s identity and the health of its residents, he said.
Proximity to those spaces can help people feel it is part of their community, said Dr. Robert Bass, an orthopedic surgeon and chief quality and medical officer at Texas Health Frisco.
Looking ahead
The city is currently redeveloping its parks and recreation master plan, a guiding document adopted in 2016. An early draft of the new plan should be available in March, Coates said.
One goal in the parks master plan is to ensure every Frisco resident is within 10 minutes of a park, Coates said. Grand Park will help the city reach that goal, she said.
Demographics in Frisco and the wants of residents have changed since 2016, Coates said, especially with facility needs for sports like pickleball and cricket.
Nilz said mountain biking is also growing in popularity and he hopes DORBA can use the success of Northwest Community Park as a template for other North Texas areas.
