An Update on the Park

We have been hearing incredible feedback from Praise, our neighbors, and our community as we gather comments and suggestions about the park. It is exciting to see the tremendous response from everyone and it has been super-rewarding to develop solutions to the related concerns.

Here is a quick update on where we are at.

❤️ The Heart

Let’s start with why we are building a park.

Jesus said that our hearts follow our treasure. Where we put our time, money, and energy impacts what we love and care about. He told a story of a man who found a treasure in a field, and in his joy, sold all he had to buy that field.

God loves this Northeast corner of Springfield. He wants Praise to love it too. One way we do that is by planting our treasure – our time, money, and energy – here. The more we do, the more our heart will follow.

So, we are building a park to bless our community and bury our hearts in this field.

📈 The Process

So, what is happening right now?

Well, we are still gathering feedback, but we have already started integrating it into the larger plan. Once the updated visualization is complete, we will begin the rough pricing process and split the project up into bite-sized pieces that we might budget for it. We don’t want to take out loans to make this happen.

Our hope is to have the finalized layout, time-line, and initial pricing complete by the end of 2021.

📐 The Changes

After gathering feedback, we huddled with our architect, made some changes, addressed some concerns, and updated our plans. While the newest visualization has not yet been returned, here is a quick overview of some of the changes:

• The baseball/softball field has been moved to the North to provide more buffer for neighbors.

• Additional trees will be planted along the property line to provide increased screening for neighbors.

• The park will be open only during sun-up to sun-down time periods. Signage and gates will help enforce this timeframe.

• Accessibility on walking paths and playgrounds has been taken into consideration and will continue to be a priority.

• Additional small group activity courts and spaces have been added, including:

  • Pickleball Court (the fastest growing sport in the nation)

  • Basketball Court

  • Sand Volleyball Pit

If you are interested in more information as we move forward, feel free to sign up to receive email updates!