The Gracywoods Neighborhood Association in North Austin has launched a Gracywoods Park restoration campaign, neighborhood association president Francoise Luca said. The neighborhood association hopes to renovate the park, including replacing the playscape rubber matting base; adding a shade structure, a water fountain and trash cans; and increasing access to benches. In addition, the park does not comply with Americans with Disabilities Act requirements, and the association aims to remedy that. Luca said when the park was developed around 10 years ago at 12133 Metric Blvd., Austin, it came as a surprise to residents. “The community really didn’t have the opportunity to put together a wish list,” Luca said. “This is a chance for us to go back and do a little bit of planning.” Frannie Sanchez, a Gracywoods resident and and the playground restoration chairwoman, said her family loves the park but sees that it greatly needs a facelift. “It’s a really cool place, but it’s full sun all day long," Sanchez said. "It’s not a place we necessarily want to go to for the majority of the day. In addition to that, the surface is falling apart.”

A park for everyone

The park serves a “full lifecycle” community, Luca said. She said people of all ages and walks of life, from young singles living in apartments to families in duplexes and in the surrounding neighborhood, enjoy the park. “The challenge with that is we have a lot of needs for our park,” Luca said. Sanchez said that diversity is why her family chose to live in Gracywoods—which is bounded by Braker Lane, Metric Boulevard, Walnut Creek and Austin Park Lane—and she loves that it culminates at the park. “[We] meet people of all different kinds,” she said. “We meet people from the apartments; we meet people who don’t speak English. The kids hear at least three different languages every time they go to the playground.” With that population diversity comes a diverse set of needs. “Through the process, it was neat getting to meet people at the park who were interested in the restoration of the space and also hearing what people’s needs were,” Sanchez said. The neighborhood association learned that along with the playscape restoration, the park also needed new trash cans, a water fountain, a pet station and recycling options. The following is the complete restoration list as of early August, according to Sanchez.

• replace rubber surface/pea gravel with engineered wood fiber
• install two ramps to the playscape
• install a 42-by-35-by-15 shade structure over playscape
• add two 6-foot picnic tables
• add one 8-foot picnic table
• add two trash cans
• add one 4-foot bench

Finding restoration funding

The association estimates the park renovations will cost about $150,000. Sanchez partnered with Gracywoods resident Bill Glass to apply for a Community Grant through the Austin Parks Foundation. The foundation annually awards two physical park improvement projects that cost between $5,000 and $50,000, according to its website. The addition of the water fountain to the list of park needs made the budget grow considerably, Sanchez said. The neighborhood decided to apply through the Neighborhood Partnering Program—a city program that provides neighborhoods funding for small-scale improvements—for additional funding. Gracywoods has until Oct. 1 to apply for the Neighborhood Partnering Program. If the neighborhood receives the funding, it will have to match the city’s contribution by 30 percent, or $45,000, according to the program’s application. Luca said the neighborhood plans to fundraise aggressively from now until October and to reach out to local businesses for support. The Neighborhood Partnering Program also allows neighborhoods to raise the money through volunteer hours. “The cool thing is that we as neighbors have the opportunity to influence what we are actually surrounded by,” Sanchez said. Gracywoods residents can take a survey on community priorities here. Follow the park's Facebook page for updates.