Photo credit: Hunter Contracting Co.
Gilbert - - The Town of Gilbert’s Desert Sky Park project is close to phase two despite recent park closures.
Announced in 2019, the Desert Sky Park project was designed to offer inclusive amenities for everyone in the community, featuring several areas with plenty of amenities already completed and much more to come. Its lake offers a serene place to sit and lunch, and remote control boats have even been spotted utilizing the water on occasion.
The project was contracted to Hunter Contracting Co., which completed the first round of construction on site in April of 2020 with a $20 million budget. The company describes its design and buildout of the playground as a “FitCoreTM extreme playground” including fabric shades as sun protection. Other features listed on the website include picnic ramadas, jogging trails, soccer fields, and office and restroom facilities.
One major anticipated feature in phase two is the construction of additional access points along Power Road, according to the Town of Gilbert website, as well as playground components including a splash pad and a fenced playground with multi-level sensory zones.
Photo credit: Town of Gilbert (render)
During a parks and recreation board meeting on Oct. 21, Parks and Recreation Manager Kylie Sorenson offered an update on the design process of the remainder of the park, stating that the park is “at 90% design completion”, and an announcement on the parks and recreation website promises the rollout of phase two in the near future.
With recent storms and flooding, however, this exceptional progress might be temporarily slowed. Several park closures throughout the town are still in effect, leaving many wondering when the parks will reopen, and if repairs will affect the ongoing progress on park development.
A recent poll on NextDoor asking residents if they’d like to see more updates on park closures revealed that all poll participants are awaiting information on when Gilbert parks will be reopening.
OpGov.ai reached out to the Gilbert Parks and Recreation department late last week and again early this week for more information on park closures and how the recent storms and flooding might affect development, and whether they’ll be open again soon.
Photo credit: Town of Gilbert
Parks and Recreation employee Jason Z. commented on a phone call on Oct. 28 that Desert Sky park had seen enough damage and flooding to warrant a full closure of the park until the facilities can be assessed for safety, stating that at one point, “a photo showed that only the octagonal part of a stop sign was visible above water”.
Jason also mentioned that while the park is designed for flood retention and is doing what it was intended to do, this leaves the fields incredibly wet, posing a threat for either field damage or personal injury should parkgoers return to them too soon.
Requests for more information about park reopenings and the impact of recent damage on the ongoing Desert Sky Park project were not returned from Parks and Recreation.
Anyone with additional or updated information regarding park reopening schedules is encouraged to email tracy.t@lead4earth.org. Ongoing updates will be added as they are received.
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