City of Redding Podcast

What's the Latest on Redding's Major Parks Projects?

City of Redding Season 4 Episode 39

Today, we’re joined by Travis Menne, the Director of Community Services, for an exciting update on some transformative projects underway in our local parks. From the expanded bike park features and fitness amenities at Caldwell Park to the community resilience center planned for Panorama Park, and the reimagining of South City Park, there’s a lot to look forward to.

Travis dives into the plans and partnerships that make these improvements possible and how these upgrades aim to enhance safety, inclusivity, and recreation opportunities for everyone in our community. Whether you're a skateboarder, a pickleball enthusiast, or just love spending time outdoors with your family, these projects are shaping the future of Redding's parks.

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I'm Katie. And I'm Steve, and this is the City of Redding podcast. Today we're joined by Travis Menne, the Director of Community Services, for an exciting update on some transformative projects underway at our local parks. From the expanded bike park features and fitness amenities at Caldwell Park to the Community Center Resilience Hub planned for Panorama Park and the ambitious reimagining of South City Park. There's a lot to look forward to. Travis dives into the plans and partnerships that make these improvements possible, and how these upgrades aim to enhance safety, inclusivity and recreation opportunities for everyone in our community. Whether you're a skateboarder, a pickleball enthusiast, or just love spending time outdoors with your family, these projects are shaping the future of Redding parks. I'm Travis Menne, I'm the director of Community Services here at the city of Redding. So Travis, the city. Of Redding has a number of exciting park projects that have been on the books for a while. We've got Caldwell Park, we've got Panorama Park, we've got South City Park. Most of them include grant funding and some plans to revitalize these parks or renovate them, or completely reimagine them. Can you walk us through those projects and just give us an update on where we are with those? Yeah. Which one would you like to start with first? Let's start with Caldwell Park, because that one has been on the books for the longest. So yeah. Caldwell Park, that has been sort of a it's a real long story. But you know, after getting funding for that, initially we started getting into early construction. We actually built components of that project mostly really just the skate park, which was huge. Luckily, we built it when we did because during that project inflation soared, you know, and that's really sort of stifled all of our efforts out there over the past couple years. We've done what we could to try to rightsize the budget, but inflation just sort of keeps marching on. And we've actually completed a scope adjustment with the state, which has allowed us to drop off a few small components of that project, and that's going to allow us to save some money. And right now what we are waiting on is our consultants final set of plans to know exactly what the difference is between what it's going to cost and what we have. And then that's where my staff goes to work to fill that gap. We're hoping to be able to close that gap really quickly, but we are going to rely on the same sorts of funding mechanisms that we have, whether that's grants, city funds or local funds. We have to be able to pull that in somehow and close that gap. We've done just about all the value engineering I think we can do without really starting to diminish the project. And we've really pulled in a lot of great partners that have potentially saved this project. Millions, mostly really big thank you to the Redding Trail Alliance for stepping up. They've actually outside of the the heavy, you know, heavy construction civil component type stuff. So that's utilities, concrete shade structures, water fountains, landscaping, things like that. The Redding Trail Alliance has stepped up to actually build all of the bikeable features. So that essentially takes all of that off our plate, and we can't thank them enough for that. And then through that process, we've actually been able to partner with tons of local contractors to bring in and help with those components of those projects on a volunteer basis. So getting, you know, thousands and thousands of yards of dirt donated by SNL group, Street Roads, helping pave the pump track with the Redding Trail Alliance. Those are key to our success out there, and we're really, really close to actually being able to do all of that project and just get it done. And I'm really hoping that gets into construction next year. We expect our documents actually in the next week to know where we are, and after we figure that out, we'll figure out where we're going and how we can get there. And that's our next step, I guess. Just for those who might not be familiar with the project, if you can just give a high level overview of what the plan is for Caldwell Park, what amenities were planned to go in there or are planned to go in there now? Yeah, we. Have the skate park was definitely a component of that project. And good news for the skateboarders. We will be lighting the new half. So all of the stuff that is new will have lighting. We definitely we know we need to do that. It is in the project plan set. And I just want to reiterate that that will be coming. Uh, we're also including a exercise, I'd call it like an exercise plaza or exercise equipment area. That's actually something that we've purchased through. It's a fitness court, and there's actually an app that you can use to like set leaderboards and do specific workouts. That's been sitting in our warehouse for a couple years ready to get installed. We're actually able to supplement our project with another grant to purchase that. We're also including improvements to the east side of the park, which include new lighting, a new restroom, and reconstruction of what? There's a road there that will be sort of converted to feel more trail like, and it'll actually formally connect to the River trail system, because we understand that that parking lot over by the soccer field at Caldwell Park is a river trail trailhead. So we're going to build that as such. Heading east from there, we're going to have lights that connect the new bike park site to Caldwell Park. So nice new trail lighting. Then once you get to the bike park site, that parking lot gets expanded. There's a large pile of dirt out there that gets converted into a hill, which will feature jumps and other terrain. There will also be a little boulder climbing area, shade structure, water fountains, and all of the landscaping, and then a skills trail area which is really designed. So if you were to go be a mountain bike rider and you need experience on a creek crossing or a little short rocky descent or whatever terrain you may encounter in the field that is going to be there to help you learn those skills before you get way out on, like, Terminator. Um, at Swasey. So we want to be able to provide those experiences and sort of a training ground. And it's not just, you know, riding across a skinny log. It's like actual things you may encounter with the right materials you may encounter in the field. And so we're able to build that terrain into the backside of that bike park. And that's what the trail lines is going to provide. So super excited to do that component. We've already built the pump track component of the bike park, which has been wildly popular, and it's a super unique pump track. So if you haven't been out there, go out to the end of Traveled Way, where that river trail parking lot is, and there's a brand new asphalt pump track that the Trail Alliance built. And it's amazing. I mean, little kids are on it, adults are on it. People are doing backflips. I'm not. But it's cool. That sounds super exciting. Travis I'm curious too, in your role as community services director, for those folks who say a place like Caldwell Park is unsafe, I know we get that a lot, and I know that's not the case, but what is your continual answer for that as far as what the city is doing to ensure safety for families and safety for those individuals looking to utilize these great new features. Yeah, we definitely try to make modifications that make things feel safe, the perception of safety and actual safety. You know, that's really what we struggle with. Like sometimes things just don't feel safe. It doesn't mean that they necessarily are unsafe. And sometimes not feeling safe is what leads you just to think it isn't. There are, you know, undoubtedly issues that happen, but those happen everywhere. It's, you know, something that we're just confronted with on Earth. So what we do is we try to make improvements that limit the perception that it may be unsafe and also try to curtail opportunities to make things unsafe. So what we try to do is, you know, improve sight lines, improve lighting, improve security for experiencing vandalism. We try to address what may allow that activity to occur. And we've made progress at Caldwell Park. But really what what I think the most overall effective tool we have is community policing. And so I always just say go there. You know, if if you want that space to be for you and your family and you feel like it isn't, let's get out there. Let's program it. Let's come up with some ideas to to do something different. And so we're always willing to have those conversations. Public parks are for everyone. They are for the public. And that is that is everyone. They are available for any park appropriate use that we can think of. And that may just be relaxing. It may be playing a game, but they're public space. So we're going to be confronted with everyone that wants to use the public space, and they are all allowed to be there. So if we want to have positive activity, let's go make positive activity happen. And so that's why I like these projects that are multifaceted, that bring in youth, they bring in seniors, they bring in adults with their kids to go to the playground. They bring in people with dogs, um, you know, they bring in nature lovers. They bring in anyone who wants to just go play a sport. And you have to sort of touch on all those different sorts of activities to get that multi-generational benefit that just drives a larger crowd there. And so we're even coming up with new ideas like being able to bring in food trucks. So if you want to go on a Friday night and have a food truck at Caldwell Park, we don't really do that now. But I want Friday night to feel good, and I want Friday night to be like, we're going to go to the skate park and there's going to be a food truck, and we're going to bring the whole family and just make an evening of it, because I want people to enjoy that space, and I want them to feel like they own it because community ownership, community policing, that's the kind of stuff that really helps our system thrive and really helps it stay safe and feel safe. Going through our park projects. If we move to Panorama Park and the Community Resiliency Center there, what's the latest with that project? Well, I'm happy to report, if you may have seen the news that the city did pull in another $9.25 million for that project, as well as another $4 million grant. A few weeks ago. And so our total construction budget is up to about $23.25 million. That used to sound like a giant number to me, and costs just keep escalating so it doesn't get you as far as you'd think, especially when you know you're paying prevailing wages and you're building a ten and a half acre site. So we're still we're experiencing a little funding gap. We're I'd say in the 4 to $5 million range. But that's not a problem we can't solve. It's just a matter of getting the design stuff done so we know what the problem is and then we can go and fix it. And so I kind of feel like we're on the cusp of that. That's another project. I'd like to get out of our shop next year to get into construction. Most of our grants give us a timeline of 2028 where we need to be complete. And so really, we want to get ahead of that. That project's going to take about 18 months to build. So we really need to get it going. And we expect, you know, with our with our latest $4 million grant, we actually added some features, which is going to take a little design time. But I'm not super worried about that because I think, you know, when we originally started that project, we did a master plan. And I think these are worthwhile additions, but they get us so much benefit on the stuff that we already had planned out there that it's worth. It's kind of a spend money to make money situation. So we're going to put in a little bit extra, but it's going to help support what we already have out there. And those new features include a skate plaza, which we're really excited to to put up there. You know, if you don't have a car and you're just a skateboarder and some of those neighborhoods, like you're not going to get down to the skate park in any sort of reasonable way. You could take the bus, or skateboarding is going to be probably a multi-hour adventure, and then you have to come back up to like, Boulevard. So having multiple places to do that activity I think is key. I love the geographic Distribution of resources. I think that that's really what we need to start doing and start putting things in multiple places. And even if that's just a small scale version of that, like a skate plaza, which is just a few thousand square foot version of a skate park, that's still key. That keeps people that want to skateboard in positive places, and skate parks provide mentorship opportunities. I think they're really healthy places to be, and it gives kids opportunities they wouldn't otherwise have. So we're adding that. We're adding field lighting to the sports field, and I think that opens up a whole wider range of activity for us. That allows us to do soccer out there, that allows us to have, you know, evening activity. And in the summer, I mean, that's key to be able to go out in the evening and actually play sports. It's really, really hot.

And we're not going to go at 3 or 4:

00.

We maybe go at 8 or 9:

00 when things start to cool down, and those lights are going to be key for that. The funding also just supported a few other features that we have in the park. And so like I said, it gets us a little farther down the road of being able to fund that thing and. Travis Panorama Park. The need for that is really because there's not a ton of field space and general recreation space in that vicinity of, I guess, what would that be? Kind of northwest. Redding so you've touched on the skate plaza and sports fields, and I believe there's a recreation center, maybe with some courts and indoor space as well. Can you maybe give us a quick overview of, in addition to those features you've already touched on, what else the community can be excited to expect there? I think this is going to be it's not going to be a park that we build everywhere because it's going to hopefully be kind of an everything park. Would you believe that the city, with the exception of us running the sports park now, we actually don't have indoor basketball courts anywhere except for the sports park that the city programs. And really, we just got those. And I wouldn't say they're ideal basketball courts because really they're a roller hockey rink with boards that go around the whole side. So it's it's a little different than traditional basketball court. But right now when we do Redding recreation programs, we're going to schools and we're, you know, basically finding other facilities. This will be our first opportunity to have our own recreation center. And so that recreation center is going to include it's about 22,000ft². It's got two indoor basketball courts, wood floors. It'll have classroom spaces. So I think there's three classroom spaces in there of varying sizes. It'll also have a kitchen. So it's more of a teaching slash prep kitchen. But all of those combined with the restrooms and shower facilities will allow that facility to function during emergencies. So we'll be able to do, you know, food distribution, they'll be able to shelter in place there. And so we're really excited to have an actual dedicated emergency facility. I think. What um, it's not something that the city has now is something that's actually built for that purpose. What we use is school campuses and Shasta College and things that work, but aren't necessarily designed to function the way that an emergency center needs to function. And certainly we'll keep using all of those. But this just opens up our portfolio. And also, you know, other cities have emergencies too. So when some other, you know, North State City is having trouble, they're going to look to other cities and say, hey, do you have can can you help? You know, can they can rent facilities, they can, you know, put their people up here or whatever. So it's really key to like California, um, initiatives to, to have these resilience and emergency centers. And that's how we've been able to get grant funding for that. So we're really, really, um, happy. And, you know, I'll be proud when that thing opens to provide that. But day to day, that is sort of an anchor and all these other things around it are going to complement that with whether it's the sports field, a little dog park, playground. We're actually in talks with a grant agency to hopefully fund a sprayground. I think, you know, like Fantasy Fountain. So we would have one up there if that grant was successful. We really, really want to see that one happen. We also have the Skate Plaza, a little bit of disc golf practice area. There's on site parking. Trails a kind of a hopefully a nature focus to our trail system and a lot of plaza space and just public space. The northwest quadrant, that Lake Boulevard area doesn't have a lot of that. And so we're really making a strategic investment for the people up there to actually have, you know, sort of a big community area. We also have some shade structure or structures up there, and I think that's about it. But it's a like I said, it's kind of an everything park. So it's got a lot going on. It's a really exciting project. And we'll we'll include some links to renderings and more information about that park in the in the show notes. People should check it out if they haven't seen any pictures of it. Okay, Travis, let's move to South City Park. That was probably the most recent park project to kind of get off the ground. And that's a real, real reimagining of that space that is currently closed and has been locked for various reasons. So walk us through where we are with that project and what's on the horizon for that. Yeah. So South City Park is not technically closed. It is available for use by reservation. So feel free to give Redding recreation a call, and we will help you get in there for whatever you need. But we were able to do this, you know, reimagining South City Park plan. And we have it's a reactivation plan, I guess we call it, and we were able to use that to get a grant. And that's through the Outdoor Recreation Legacy Partnership Program or LP. So that is a state slash federal program where the state administers federal dollars. So we are currently executing everything we need to do. Actually, I think we just wrapped it all up because we had to finish our Nepa documents, which is the federal side of environmental clearance. We finished all that up and we're in design on that project we're kind of honing in on final versions of the site plan, and then we can get into the actual engineering out there. So it's actually tracking quite well. I would say that the initial budget is a little light for what we would love to do out there, so we may be seeking other funding opportunities, but right now we're in the value engineering phase of trying to get those costs down and figuring out what's most important, you know, is concrete here most important, or could that be a natural surface path or how does that work? So we're trying to figure some of this stuff out. We've got a good consulting team. You know we're constantly chipping away at that. But it's just kind of one of our many projects. And they just take time to get through the consulting phase and design phase. So we expect that to take about a year. So we're hoping to wrap that up for going out to bid by the end of next year, which means 2026 would be our construction year. And maybe in the meantime we get some supplemental funding. But, you know, we're going to have to see where the numbers come in. That's another one that's super exciting. I hate to be a negative Nelly, but I'm curious on that one. I know the community's expressed quite a bit of dialog on that location, given the current state of, or the state that the park has been in for the last few years. Similarly to the question, I guess, about Caldwell as part of this reimagining of South City Park and maybe activating some of these spaces that that have not been activated. And as you mentioned earlier, parks, obviously, for everyone in the community, what are your plans to ensure safety in South City Park? Well, we certainly have our park ranger program, which is a wildly successful and I think RPD for, you know, continuing to do that. I really love seeing those guys out there. The park will also remain fenced. Certainly all are welcome in every park, but the activity has to be appropriate and that will just depend on the amount of park ranger presence, community presence and Indicators to people who may not want to do, who may not want to use parks appropriately, that that behavior is not welcome here. And so really it's going to take kind of it's like a take takes. The village approach on this one is that we're trying to put enough activity to get all of the right groups in there, whether that's the little dog park is going to bring in the dog people. The pickleball courts are going to bring in the pickleball players, the playground. You know, in my mind, my goal was to rival or beat the playground out at Enterprise Park Kids Kingdom because I want to have a regional draw. And so regional draw gets us county residents and it gets us, you know, uh, visitors or whoever may be in our community. And it's going to take a little bit of pressure off neighborhood parks. And so I think that that's great to kind of be able to pull a little bit away from those and put into South City Park that activity. So I think once we take all that, we've got a little skate plaza. So we've got these groups that activate all day, every day, all year. And that's the goal, is that we have enough activity to indicate to anyone who may not want to use the park appropriately, that that is not welcome here. Certainly everyone is welcome. But again, that activity may not be welcome. So we want to make sure that there are enough people in there to definitely put off that vibe, as well as when we design new features. They're designed to modern standards, and most of the places I'd say that you you might see those issues or feel that way about your park is where we haven't been able to design to modern standards. And a lot of that includes doing things like crime prevention through environmental design standards, which really hones in on like specific measurements for plant heights and, you know, sightlines through parks and defined entryways and, and really a lot that are a lot of rules in design that are key indicators that you know, what activities are appropriate here. And so, um, we're not going to say that there's never going to be an issue, but that we're going to do our best to make sure that people are there and it is well taken care of and well maintained. And, you know, do do whatever we can to make sure that activity is discouraged as much as possible. And like I said, it's still going to be fenced at night. So it'll be a day use only area. And thanks to the community and our park rangers, I'm pretty optimistic that we're going to be successful there. Got it. Okay. Travis, I guess you touched on each of those three parks. The estimated construction date. Can you just give us a quick recap for Caldwell, Panorama and South City, when folks could expect to begin utilizing those spaces as far as if all goes according to plan, when construction will be completed on all three of those? Yeah. It's, um, you know, it's all a little crystal ball type stuff at this point, but I would say for Panorama. So first, first and foremost, our, our next project would be Caldwell Park. So it's certainly not the only project we're working on, but of these big projects we're talking about, that would be our next project, that my goal is to have out to bid in the next couple months, which means that we may be looking at like a summertime construction, but we still have to fill whatever funding gap is out there. So provided we get that, that would be a next year project and it would wrap up in 2025. Following that, we would have South City Park and Panorama Park, which may go around the same time. Again, funding is a tricky part. You know, there's a lot of dedicated funding for for parks, but we've actually identified all the monies that we bring in from new development that is flexible and actually already programed it into these, like over the next few years. So we actually know what we're going to be able to invest in those. Should we get additional funds. That will definitely help solve our problem. But we anticipate those next two projects, South City Park and Panorama Park. Panorama may get started a little earlier, and that would be essentially, um, if we got it out in 2025, we'd be building through 2026 and completing in 2027, which I know is a long time to wait. But, you know, we just kind of have to bear with us on these things. We're doing our best. And then South City Park is about a one year build. And so that would probably go out to bid around that same time, late 2025 and go through 2026 and hopefully be open 2026. So we got some big years ahead of us. Yeah. And like I said, those aren't our only projects. So just stay tuned on tons of other stuff. Yeah, I guess on that note, is there anything else that you want to touch on or give an update or plug for while we're talking about parks? Nope. Just go out and love your park. That's all we want anyone to do is just, you know, use them. That's what they're there for. Get your kids out there. Get your get your family out there. Go out and use one of the barbecue pits. Find a new use. Pitch us something different. You know we want those to work for people. As we explore the history of South City Park, we found that every kind of 20, 30 years, there's been a reimagining of that space. And what we want to do is meet the community's current needs. But if something's not meeting everyone's needs, let us know. And we also do have a community Services Advisory commission, and they meet regularly. And we're here for public comment. And we want to know what makes you know, what makes your life better with our park system. And we'll do what we can. And if there's a good partnership to be had there, we'll we'll work with you and, you know, maybe do something different. That's how we get some of these projects. That's how we're building pump tracks and volleyball courts and all this sort of stuff. Is it, you know, pickleball courts. We're working with people to do that. And so if you've got momentum and an idea and a group and a path forward, come talk to us, see what we can do.