City breaks ground on new $8.7 million park, calling it the ‘transformation of west Fresno’

via Fresnoland

“Together we continue to transform west Fresno’s identity as one from heavy industrial pollution to a region of green space, a region where you can go from Head Start to college without leaving your neighborhood.” 

City leaders broke ground this week on a new 10-acre park in southwest Fresno, near Church and Martin Luther King, Jr. Avenues, behind the new Fresno City College, West Fresno Center campus.

The park, which has yet to be named, is just one part in a series of planned developments in the West Creek Village Development Area, a 120-acre mixed-use project that promises to bring more housing, a museum and around 323,000-square-feet of space dedicated for medical offices, businesses, and storefronts.

“The West Creek Village area will see new residential communities, recreational areas, entertainment venues and commercial opportunities and more,” said Mayor Jerry Dyer during the news conference on Monday.Part of the construction will also serve to build a new loop road, sidewalks, site utilities, drainages, curbs, gutters and street lights.Building the park comes with an $8.7 million price tag, according to Randall Morrison, director of capital projects for the city. Funding came from the state’s Transformative Climate Communities Program for $5.4 million, park impact fee revenues for $5.2 million and a contribution of $1.5 million by 2500 MLK, LLC.The park’s construction is expected to take seven months to complete.

With the recent completion of the Fresno City College West Fresno Center, the park marks a step forward in planned development in the area. Councilmember Miguel Arias, who represents District 3, reflected on the area’s history of poverty and pollution.“It is my hope that the trajectory and the transformation of west Fresno continues down this path,” Arias said. “Together we continue to transform west Fresno’s identity as one from heavy industrial pollution to a region of green space, a region where you can go from Head Start to college without leaving your neighborhood.” 

Sylvesta Hall, CEO and founder of Blue Ocean Development America, LLC and creator of the West Creek Village Development Project, spoke about future projects, including a 12-acre elementary school and a new museum.“The community park will serve as the nucleus for the West Creek Village Development Project area,” Hall said. “(Along with) 136 single family quality homes, 150,000 square feet of regional retail, 345 housing units, a 12 acre elementary school, our American Museum of Tolerance and Cultural Preservation and our West Creek Village Development Community Resilience center.”

What will the park look like in West Creek Village?

Described as the center of the mixed-use development project, the park will boast drought tolerant plants, over 100 trees and bioswales, which are landscape features that collect stormwater runoff, filter it and allow it to permeate through the ground. 

Aaron Aguirre, director of Parks, After School, Recreation, and Community Services for the city, said the park’s layout and look is modeled after the Sierra Nevada mountains and has a strong emphasis on sustainability.

“The park was designed with the environment in mind and includes a network of native tree line pathways and a framework of shaded paths and spaces,” Aguirre said. “The central feature of the park’s landscape is what we call the ‘park peak,’ a prominent sculpted landform which will provide views over the park and the surrounding community.”

Aguirre also mentioned that there will be a slide at the park peak that will allow children to slide from the top down to a play area.