At the Sept. 19 Grapevine City Council meeting, Council approved an outdoor fitness area appropriate for all ages and abilities to be added to The REC of Grapevine.

During the meeting Parks and Recreation Director Kevin Mitchell presented the idea of a partnership with the National Fitness Campaign, an enterprise that provides outdoor gyms called Fitness Courts to partner cities.

“This is a new fitness system,” Mitchell said at the meeting. “The first proof of concept was built in San Francisco. They’ve tweaked it and refined it and now they’re going to release 30 of these across the United States. Grapevine will be the first one.”

Since this will be the newest model, Mitchell said the company will film at the Grapevine outdoor court when it's built and will release the video across the nation.

“One thing that’s unique about this fitness system is it will allow friends and patrons across the country to challenge each other with a mobile app,” Mitchell said in the meeting. “So if you have a friend or a relative in another city, they can do the same workout and you can challenge each other back and forth.”

The National Fitness Campaign’s website says each Fitness Court features 30 individual pieces of equipment in exercise stations for bodyweight circuit training, as well as a shock-resistant sports flooring with room for 28 individuals to use the court at the same time.

The proposed location for the Fitness Court will be on the southeast corner of the current football field.

Councilor Duff O’Dell voiced her approval of the project, but asked Mitchell if the department had considered additional sites in case more Fitness Courts needed to be built.

“I think this is going to be extremely popular,” she said.

Mitchell answered that Parks and Recreation staff had identified another location within the city, and agreed with O’Dell that having the Fitness Court would be great advertisement for the city.

A motion to approve the court was met with a unanimous vote in favor, and Mitchell said construction on the court will begin as soon as November.

City documents report that funding for the project is available in the Quality of Life fund in an amount not to exceed $75,000.