Frisco's $40M Northwest Community Park nears June completion

“We have to build these destination parks that are exciting and unique enough that I can get someone to come from the southwest corner of Frisco to drive to the northwest corner of Frisco through the traffic, however many miles it is,” she said.

The $40 million park is different from other Frisco parks that have come online in recent years. Instead of a focus on sports fields, seen in parks such as Harold Bacchus Community Park, Northwest will have a focus on nature, Mayor Jeff Cheney said.

“The needs of our citizens have changed over time, and truthfully our sports complexes are meeting the demand,” he said. “We have a lot of requests from our residents to have different types of parks. ... This is a destination park we think our residents will drive to.”

Northwest has a large focus on cycling as a sport, Coates said. For example, the project will have a bike park geared toward beginners, asphalt pump tracks for intermediate riders and off-road trails with jumps and other obstacles.

Some context

The park’s bike trails will be maintained by the Dallas Off-Road Bicycling Association, or DORBA, once it is completed.

Volunteering to maintain trails is a large part of DORBA, said Rick McGrath, the organization’s development director.

McGrath said the park will become the “gold standard” for what a park with cycling in mind should be in North Texas.

“We’re so excited about what they are doing there,” he said. “We’re going to use the same design for other mountain bike parks in the North Texas area.”

The focus on families and cycling is going to bring people from miles away to enjoy the park, McGrath said.

The city invested about $45 million on the project including contingencies, which haven’t been used so the park is closer to a $40 million price tag, Coates said.

“It’s like a getaway from the city right there in the park,” McGrath said. “We are very excited.”

Diving in deeper

Beyond cycling, the park will include open space that will incorporate a dog park, event lawn, playground and food truck spaces.

The goal was to cater to the entire family with the park with something to do for all skill levels, Coates said. The trails can also be used for runners, walkers and anyone else wanting to see the native Blackland Prairie that is specific to the region. The prairie is an ecological region in the North Texas area known for dark clay soils that once covered large portions of Frisco.

The prairies and ecology can be used for field trips, which was a priority when the park was developed, Coates said. Around 2017, Frisco ISD officials asked about field trip opportunities in nature and had to travel to surrounding communities for those trips. Now, Northwest Community Park can fit that need, she said.

There are untouched areas of the park that students can learn about nature. The walking trails in the park also have offshoots of gathering areas where teachers can hold mini lessons on the go, Coates said.

Major takeaways

Cheney sees the park as a testament to the focus on green space during his time in office, which comes to an end this May. It will be on his “mayor’s tombstone,” he said.

“When people either get on a bike or they decide to walk the trail through the woods, they’re not going to feel like they’re in Frisco,” Cheney said.