Oak Park — Residents are seeing what a multimillion-dollar spending effort by Oakland County in a city park looks like as part of the county’s effort to revive parks in core communities.
Oakland County Parks this past week celebrated the grand opening of Oak Park Woods at Shepherd Park. The Monday grand opening followed $6.2 million in county spending.
The revitalization is part of the Oakland County Parks’ Healthy Communities initiative, in which the county operates and fixes up parks in communities throughout the county. Oak Park is in the southern end of the county and has an estimated population of about 29,000 residents.
“That’s what our taxes should be paying for,” said Ariel Austin, 33, whose children were playing Thursday on the Oak Park Woods playground. “If it’s coming out of tax money, it should be stuff for the public to use. Infrastructure, even if it’s recreational infrastructure — that’s what our money should be going toward.”
The Healthy Communities initiative was born from the $220 million that Oakland County received from the American Rescue Plan Act, a $1.9 trillion stimulus bill signed in 2021 by then-President Joe Biden. The original plan consisted of $20 million to focus on parks in the county’s cities. The fund is now up to $30 million, said Parks Director Chris Ward.
Ward said projects in the Healthy Communities initiative include the old Hawthorne Park in Pontiac, the Ambassador Park in Madison Heights and Southfield Oaks.
“It’s really the largest expansion of county parks in our history into core population centers,” Ward said. “We’ve always had these amazing parks in the more rural northern and western areas of the county, but at times have struggled to be as relevant in the lives of the folks who live in our cities.”
Oak Park Woods is 17 acres and includes a towering, colorful nature-themed playground with slides and nets. The park also has a warming kitchen, trails, year-round restrooms, grills and bike racks, according to an Oakland County Parks news release.
On Thursday, children climbed on the playground and ran through the area while their parents enjoyed the shade.
“This is big enough where my kid is turning 12 next month, and she can climb this and not be in the way of other kids,” Austin said.
“In weekdays ever since (the grand opening), that playground has become a huge destination for the whole southeast Oakland region. More and more people find out about it. It’s just a cool space.”
Ward said the Healthy Communities initiative will bring “a pretty dramatic increase” in the number of people reached by Oakland County Parks.
“We’ve really shown what can happen when governments work together for the benefit of the people,” Ward said. “People have an open mind and (have) a willingness to work with us.”
mbryan@detroitnews.com
This article originally appeared on The Detroit News: Oakland County reopens Oak Park Woods after $6.2M revitalization
Reporting by Max Bryan, The Detroit News / The Detroit News
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Max Bryan, The Detroit News | USA TODAY Network
