Visalia City Council voted unanimously to proceed with plans to build Elliott Park on a 4-acre property southwest of the intersection of Walnut Avenue and Roeben Street.
However, no decision was reached on Pearl Wood Park, the other neighborhood park discussed at the Jan. 22 meeting. The 5.5-acre property designated for the future park is located a quarter-mile southeast of McAuliff Street and Cherry Avenue.
Although council members favored the third of three options presented for Pearl Wood Park, they wanted to change some of the proposed amenities, including replacing the botanical garden and artwork with a mini-pitch. Since not all costs were available at the meeting, the city council decided to postpone its decision.
The council also preferred the third option presented for Elliott Park.
“There’s a modified pump track that’s about as big as an outdoor basketball court,” said Jason Glick, Visalia Parks and Recreation director, in his description of the option. “There’s a mini-pitch, a passive play area, a lit walking path, cornhole and horseshoe pits, a fitness course, traditional playground, and your ‘Kodak moment’ is off of Roeben Street near the fitness course walking path, and then you have the big passive open green space.”
The pump track is for cycling, mini-pitch is mainly for hard-court soccer and the passive play area describes gardens and quiet space.
“The cost estimate for the Elliott property is just under $4.8 million,” Glick said. “The Elliott property has a current budget. This property is fully funded, and there’s some wiggle room here, so we don’t need to make any kind of funding adjustments whatsoever.”
According to the presentation, the project has almost $5.2 million in funding.
San Joaquin Valley Homes, which built the houses in the neighborhood, will provide the infrastructure for Elliott Park. The company selected Wood Architecture to design the park.
Before creating the designs, Wood Architecture engaged with city staff to get public input on park amenities from the community. Three meetings were held on the Elliott property last spring where members of the public voted for what they wanted to see in the park.
The top six park amenities chosen by the public for Elliott Park were: a walking path of lights, restrooms, pickleball courts, DMX pump track, parking lot and botanical garden.
Following the voting, city staff met with design teams and determined what best fit the park, the city, and the surrounding neighborhood.
During city council deliberations, Council Member Brian Poochigian expressed concern about the option favored by the council.
“I struggle with this,” he said. “Pickleball is on the list and we didn’t get pickleball on here. Now we’re putting mini-pitches in multiple parks, I struggle with that because will they use it? Will they not use it? You know the pickleball courts will be used, and that’s why I wish you put some pickleball courts here at this facility.”
“If we’re going to move forward with the mini-pitch at the other park, I would want to replace the mini-pitch,” said Council Member Steve Nelsen. “Pickleball is top three, so I would definitely consider that over the mini-pitch at this park.”
Council Member Emmanuel Hernandez Soto noted that no one voted for mini-pitch at Elliott Park.
“We didn’t have the mini-pitch available (as a voting option for) the Elliott Park location,” Glick responded. “We added it for Pearl Wood.”
He noted that when mini-pitch was presented as an option for Pearl Wood Park, “a lot of people couldn’t comprehend what it was.”
Council members showed interest in adding two pickleball courts to option 3 until Glick estimated that each court would cost the city about $250,000. The council then voted unanimously to approve option 3 without changes.
Glick said he expected a ground-breaking ceremony for Elliott Park in the fall.
“From there, it’s about 12 to 16-month build,” he said, predicting that the park would be open in early 2028 or “if we get lucky, late 2027.”
This article originally appeared on Visalia Times-Delta: Visalia City Council approves plans for new neighborhood park
Reporting by Steve Pastis, Visalia Times-Delta / Visalia Times-Delta
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