Apr 22, 2021
The Colorado Lottery recognizes the City of Longmont Parks & Natural Resources Division’s Garden Acres Park Renewal project with a Starburst Award.
Of the just over $5 million dollar project, $1,984,000 was funded with Conservation Trust Fund (CTF) dollars. The remaining budget was funded with the City’s Public Improvement Fund, which are general fund dollars generated by tax revenue, as well as the Park & Greenway Maintenance Fee Fund.
Garden Acres Community Park is one of Longmont’s most highly utilized parks throughout its existence 30 years ago. The park features a lighted softball 4-plex, multi-use fields, batting cages, a cricket pitch, shelters, playgrounds, restrooms, and walking paths. Due to the consistent high level of use throughout the years, the park was in disrepair and did not provide a safe, accessible, user-friendly experience to Longmont residents and visitors. In 2014, the Garden Acres Community Park was identified as the highest priority park in need of renewal in the City.
Beginning with a Master Plan Update/Park Renewal Plan, the City was then able to fund two phases of the project, which focused on infrastructure replacement needs, safety, usability, and ADA (Americans with Disability Act) compliance. Phase 2 was completed in 2019.
The primary goal of the project was to re-establish a safe, usable, accessible, and enjoyable experience at Garden Acres Community Park. The design focused on creating ADA compliance for the entire 4-plex, which required re-grading the concrete walks to all features of the sports complex including spectator seating, dugouts, the center pavilion, restrooms, and scorebooths. Two new playgrounds were also designed to be ADA compliant and feature a mix of rubber tile surfacing, poured in place rubber surfacing, engineered wood fiber, a sand play area, and universally accessible play components.
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More than $10.5 million in Lottery funds are represented in 11 winning projects distributed statewide through grants via Great Outdoors Colorado (GOCO), the Conservation Trust Fund (CTF), Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW), and Building Excellent Schools Today (BEST).
