City Council on April 5 viewed a presentation on Northwest Community Park from Design Workshop Principal Conners Ladner and Parks and Recreation Director Shannon Coates. Council members recently discussed the park in their annual winter work session.
Ladner said schematics for the 164-acre park east of Teel Parkway are 50% complete. Schematic design work is expected to be complete in May, which Ladner added will come with an updated cost estimate.
The tower, referred to as the “prairie observation platform” in the latest presentation, would feature three tiers designed for both cyclists and visitors on foot. The first two tiers would be 800 square feet with a top tier encompassing 200 square feet, according to Ladner.
Coates said the tower is currently budgeted at roughly $1 million.
The structure would also allow Frisco ISD students to scale the tower and observe the prairieland, Coates said. A total of 85% of land at Northwest Community Park is earmarked for “ecosystem restoration.”
“It does allow people to walk up to that middle stand, or bike up, and then it will become the beginning for gravity-fed bike trails,” Ladner said. “But that's just one of ... multiple functions that it has.”
Several additional fixtures at the park are planned, including a splash pad near the entrance of the park, playgrounds, an amphitheater, and miles of trails for both joggers and cyclists.
“This is a multiday park,” Coates said. “This isn't a park that you ... would go out and see everything—and truly experience everything—in a day.”
Mayor Jeff Cheney said the city has been working to clarify information on Northwest Community Park and added that several amenities beyond those for cycling are planned. Cheney said that some residents heard an initial cost estimate of $24.5 million for the park during an October meeting and mistakenly assumed that cost as only for the tower.
“The headline’s no longer, ‘It’s a gravity bike trail.’ That’s a secondary use,” Cheney said. “The headline’s more of an observation deck.”
Construction is scheduled to begin next year, and the park could potentially be completed by 2024.
Clarification: The schematic phase of design will be completed in May, according to Ladner. The design of the park is expected to be complete in December.
