Planned upgrade to Jacobs Park on Tucson’s North Side include a skate park, softball complex, soccer field, indoor soccer court and pickleball court. In Midtown, Palo Verde Park is closing this month for construction, which will last through next summer.
The city will receive $2.9 million via a federal grant for the Jacobs Park improvements, announced Wednesday by the U.S. Interior Department.
The park, on North Fairview Avenue south of Prince Road, was part of a $47 million federal Outdoor Recreation Legacy Partnership program that includes 10 parks across the country.
The funds will cover construction and rehabilitation of a skate park, softball complex, two soccer fields built to tournament standards, a pickleball court, and a futsal (indoor soccer) court. The park work will also include a new playground, picnic and grill area, concessions building, new restrooms, and an expanded dog park. The plan includes eliminating a parking lot, planting 310 new trees and redesigned stormwater infrastructure.
Park improvements on the other side of town were announced Wednesday by city officials.
Palo Verde Park, on South Mann Avenue near East Broadway and South Kolb Road, is closing later this month for improvements.
The dog park is the only amenity at that park that will remain open during construction, which is projected to last through next summer.
The work will include new and upgraded LED lighting on existing fields, converting the tennis court into a basketball court, replacing the existing basketball court with three pickleball courts, renovating the irrigation system, planting additional trees, and turf reduction, officials said.
Those projects are in addition to a renovation of the pool plaster, tile, and dive pools already completed.
The Palo Verde improvements are being paid for with bond funds of more than $2.5 million from Prop. 407, along with impact fees and monies from Ward 2, official said.
Outdoor Recreation Legacy Partnership
The Interior Department program aims to create or redesign local parks with almost $127 million committed in the past year. Tucson is one of 10 cities, including Porterville, Calif.; Des Moines, Iowa; Kansas City, Mo.; New Brunswick, N.J.; Garner and Raleigh, N.C.; Cleveland, Ohio; and Houston, Texas, that will receive this round of funding.
The program, founded in 2014 and funded through the Land and Water Conservation Fund, aims to build or remodel parks in urban communities in order to “improve equitable access to the outdoors in economically underserved communities,” according to a news release. ORLP is a part of the Biden-Harris administration’s America the Beautiful initiative, which aims to conserve and restore the nation’s wildlife and parks.
“Through the Outdoor Recreation Legacy Partnership program, the Interior Department is investing millions of dollars for locally led projects that are creating new city parks and rehabilitating existing outdoor spaces, all driven by the needs and vision of local communities,” said Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, a native of Winslow, Ariz. and former New Mexico congresswoman.