The Cottonwood Parks and Recreation Department has embarked on a multi- year process of refurbishing Cottonwood’s parks and open spaces.
With the completion of the Riverfront Wastewater Treatment Facility this past year, a new and improved Riverfront Park has become a major goal of the department.
Cottonwood Parks and Rec released a master plan for that future vision of Riverfront Park, courtesy of Norris Design, a Phoenix-based landscape architecture firm.
The plan features numerous additions to the current layout of Riverfront park, including basketball and pickle ball courts, sand volleyball and soccer pitches, a dog park, new playgrounds and a splash pad, a mountain bike course and riverwalk trail and a disc golf course. It would feature kayak access for the Verde River, as well as a pond within the park with a shorter kayak course that features white water rapids not available on the natural river route.
“Riverfront park has been a longtime staple in this community, and if you go down there on any day, Monday through Sunday, people will be down there and they’ll be playing or they’ll be walking next to the river, enjoying the trails,” Cottonwood Parks and Rec Director Hezekiah Allen said. “A community our size with a 96-acre park roughly in the center of our town — it’s a staple. We hope to build upon that rich tradition which has made Riverfront Park what it is today and continue that on and provide something for future generations.”
Allen said that making the park more engaging for families is a major goal of the project, pointing to features geared towards young children, such as the splash pad, learning center, and a tiny bike loop where children can learn to ride.
The plan came out of months of citizen engagement meetings and represents according to Allen an early step in a multi-year, open-ended process to refurbish the park. He stressed that nothing is set in stone and that the plan is still at least months away from presenting their plans to the council. Allen did not indicate any desired time- line, saying that the parks department does not want to rush this process.
Allen also indicated that aspects of the plan can be changed due to public input. Initial responses included complaints about the lack of a skate rink, which Allen said would be under discussion.
The beginning of the renovation of Riverfront Park comes with new irrigation infrastructure that is intended to be installed as part of a Community Development Block Grant from the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development that the city is applying for this coming fall. Cottonwood’s application will be for funds leading to a city- wide park plan, including not just Riverfront, but parks and trails throughout Cottonwood.
According to Allen, the CDBG will be a first step for the park renovation, which would necessarily include later funding from sources including the city’s general plan and hopefully other grants.
