Legacy Parks & Master Plan

Legacy Parks

Legacy Parks includes continued investment in our current beloved parks and pathways throughout the city with particular emphasis on familiar favorites like Lakewood Park, Kirchhoff, and Ogden Gardens/Forest Park for the most extensive upgrades. 

Our Legacy Parks are the foundation of our park system. We have been thankful to have a budget and a variety of private public partnerships, like Community Grants to improve playgrounds within the neighborhoods at Jessee-Pifer, Banta, and Will Park. We are grateful for Champions like the Samardzija family who have helped us do major renovations at Tower Park and to the thousands of volunteers and financial champions that enabled us to do an extraordinary rebuild at ValPLAYso, The Next Generation in 2014-2015.  

Valpo Parks has developed Master Plans for 17 parks and will continue to review these plans with neighborhoods and the community to make them the most effective and efficient possible. 

Phase 1:

• Open House for Public Input - Monday, March 7th at 5 pm
  Welter Room at Forest Park Golf Course
  
  Review plans and provide input on these plans. This will be the first session, with more happening through the summer where public presentations and input will be held regarding our legacy parks. 

Master Plan

Valpo Parks may be more than 75 years old, yet it continues to reinvent itself, adding properties and experiences, such as the recently opened ValPAWraiso Dog Park on Campbell Street and the Creekside Trails cycling pathway on the city's south side, while continuing to make major investments in legacy parks like Bicentennial and Tower in the last several years. To ensure Parks continues to stay at the forefront of recreation for residents and visitors, Valpo Parks launched a new Master Plan process in 2020, looking to the community for the best ideas.

Over the past year and a half, Valpo Parks have been engaged in a Master Plan process and specific task forces seeking public input and consulting with local and national experts in parks facilities and programming. In the process of creating our city’s new strategic plan and these park’s plans, we’ve conducted over 30 focus groups with over 200 participants and engaged surveys with over 2,000 responses from residents and participants of all ages.