The Waco City Council got a clearer look Tuesday at plans for Alice Martinez Rodriguez Park, a $25 million effort to create a regional attraction with an inclusive playground, sports facilities, natural features and elements honoring the Hispanic culture and history of the neighborhood around the former Floyd Casey Stadium site.
“It started as an idea for an inclusive park and you’ve gone and made it so beautiful, a park for everyone,” Council Member Alice Rodriguez, the park’s namesake, said of designs shown to the council Tuesday by parks and recreation Director Jonathan Cook. “Thank you for your imagination and your passion and your drive for this park. It’s going be a jewel in the center of Waco.”
Coleen Heaton, an advocate for people with disabilities and their families as director of The Arc of McLennan County, said by phone Thursday that she is thrilled for the city to build an inclusive park.
Cook showed the council artist’s concepts for several play areas and an illuminated fountain pavilion, among other features, during his presentation Tuesday. The park will be built across Clay Avenue from the stadium site, where Turner Brothers has started utility and street work for a housing and retail subdivision it is developing with city support.
An illuminated fountain pavilion proposed for the park will have light shows on warm evenings, and on hot days it can be used as a splash pad, Cook said.
“We think people will come out to this fountain during evenings to relax,” Cook told the council.
Three play areas grouped together near the middle of the park will be designed around imagination, movement as well as arts and music, Cook said. The designs will be fun for kids with or without physical disabilities, and also for neurodivergent youngsters who may have attention deficit or intellectual or cognitive disorders which are far more common, he said. Neurotypical people will also enjoy the playgrounds, Cook said.
In all, the design concepts for the play areas incorporate 39 amenities for children age 2-5 that are compliant with Americans with Disabilities Act accessibility standards, and 64 amenities for kids age 5-12 compliant with the same standards.
One of the playground concepts incorporates a rope course and giant masks inspired by Mesoamerican traditions, the parks chief said. Another is designed on a hill and has a “folklore figure” resembling a dragon peeking up out of the ground.
Still another element Cook recommended to the council is an “all wheels park.”
The city already has one skateboard park, Sul Ross Skate Park, for skilled skateboarders. The “all wheels park” at Rodriguez Park would be designed for skateboard beginners, but also to be enjoyed by people who may use wheelchairs, scooters or bicycles, Cook said.
Also included in the park will be a grass youth soccer field in the Hart-Patterson Track Complex. The track complex and the baseball diamond at nearby Bell’s Hill Park will also be restored and improved along with construction of the inclusive park between these two existing athletic facilities. Paved paths may connect Bell’s Hill to the new park. Bell’s Hill’s baseball diamond got a facelift last summer courtesy of a Bobcat program and Chip Gaines, and Cook said at the time that more improvements are slated for Bell’s Hill in coordination with the new park.
WATCH NOW: Bell’s Hill Park’s long-neglected ballpark is undergoing a $100,000 makeover as part of a collaborative project between the city of Waco, the Bobcat construction equipment company, the National Recreation and Park Association and Chip Gaines.
Council Member Josh Borderud said he appreciates the mindfulness of including soccer in the Rodriguez Park facilities as soccer rises in popularity.
The city approved a $2.9 million contract in 2023 with the firm Design Workshop, out of $25.3 million budgeted for design and construction of the park.
Final construction documents will be prepared next month. Permitting and bidding will be conducted from March through May. Cook said he expects construction to begin in June and continue through September of next year.
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