City outlines Heritage Park renovation plan and council signals intent to return events downtown

Nicole Baird Spencer, director of long range planning and projects for the city of Eagle, described the Heritage Park renovation and expansion plans during the Jan. 13 town hall and answered questions from downtown business owners worried about events, vendors and lost parking.

Spencer said the city owns three parcels that together total five acres at Heritage Park and that the current park configuration is too small for demand. She said the renovation will preserve the gazebo and the two large trees that flank it, and will reintroduce a larger, more flexible plaza in part of the area now used for parking. “We are increasing the usable area of the park, with a new plaza that will be taking over where the parking is in the park right now,” she said.

Planned park features Spencer described include a new splash pad with its mechanicals inside an expanded multipurpose building that will house restrooms, a concession stand and city fiber hookups; a new all-season shade structure (roughly 28 by 35 feet); seat walls and structured tree wells to support events and flexible programming; new paver sidewalks and street trees on Second Street; and preservation and reuse of donor heritage bricks in a “heritage plaza.” Spencer said design review recently gave a general approval, the city expects a 50% engineering set on Jan. 16, and staff hope to advertise the project for bid in early March with construction finishing in the fall and the city aiming to be out of the park by Nov. 1, 2025.

At the meeting Mayor and council members told business owners the council previously made a motion to return historical events to the downtown area when Heritage Park work allows. “The council did this last year when we approved the Heritage Park renovation that all historical events would return to the downtown area,” a council member said at the meeting. The mayor added that very large events (for example, those the council judges have more than 5,000 attendees) may require additional safety planning and could be evaluated separately.

Business owners at the town hall, including Amy Ritchie (Urban Casuals) and other downtown merchants, said losing markets and festivals has harmed downtown businesses and urged a firm commitment and communication from the city about when events will return. Amy Ritchie said sales figures fell for holiday events she used to rely on: “I did $29 this year” at one event and “country Christmas, I was down 62%,” she said, describing the financial impact on her shop.

City staff and council members acknowledged the financial strain on small businesses and said they will develop contingency plans. The mayor said staff have been directed to prepare parallel plans (plan A and plan B) in case construction timelines change, and noted the city will consider safety and logistics for large events.

Concerns expressed at the meeting included: loss of park parking during construction, the possibility that event vendor tents would block downtown storefronts (which led to complaints earlier in the project), and the impacts of phased construction on business access. Council members said they are tracking those issues and that a council liaison (Councilmember Gindelsberger) will attend construction updates.

No formal council vote on the Heritage Park construction or event locations occurred at the town hall; discussion focused on schedule, design elements and operational issues for businesses and events.