Oakland County outlines $7.2 million redevelopment plan for Red Oaks Park in Madison Heights

Oakland County Parks and Recreation officials on Dec. 9 presented updated design plans and a funding update for Red Oaks Park (formerly Ambassador Park) in Madison Heights, saying recent millage and ARPA funds allow the full project to be built at once.

County planning manager Melissa Pross told the City Council the project budget grew from an initial roughly $3.8 million plan to a full $7,200,000 redevelopment after the county millage passed in November. "As soon as our County Parks and Recreation Millage passed on November 5th ... we asked them if they would please allocate the funding so that we could do the full build out of this park at 1 time and not have to come back. So it is now a $7,200,000 park redevelopment project," Pross said.

The presentation outlined concept renderings and site plans showing an expanded playground area, an "Earthscape" playscape, a smaller circular "talk garden," a porch-style restroom/pavilion building, a larger parking lot with bioswales and roughly 85 additional parking spaces, a remodeled sledding hill with added play features, a hammock garden and a quiet reflection garden with potential artwork and seating.

Why it matters: The county said combining ARPA funds with the new parks millage will allow the full concept to be built at once instead of in two phases, accelerating construction and reducing later disruption. County staff emphasized universal-access design elements and restroom amenities aimed at making the park usable by people of varying ages and abilities.

Planned features and accessibility - The restroom building, described as a "porch garden," will include restrooms, a water bottle filling station, charging stations and accessible adult changing tables, plus Adirondack-style seating that looks over the main lawn. - The playground will use poured-in-place surfacing and some artificial turf, with play equipment from vendors the presenter named as Duncan and Groves, Earthscape and Columbia Cascades. Pross described mounded topography, net bridges and inclusive spinning discs "easy to transfer onto and spin around on for kids of all abilities." - Parking additions will use curb-block parking and direct runoff into rain gardens and bioswales. About 85 new spaces were described in the presentation.

Schedule and procurement Pross said the design is at about 60% complete, that Di Maria is contracted as the construction manager, and that ARPA funds required to secure the project were secured by the end of the year. The county expects 90% construction drawings in January, to order playground equipment in January (equipment has long lead times), go out to bid in early to mid-February and begin construction in spring 2025, possibly April but perhaps May depending on contractor mobilization. "I'm optimistically, I think that the bulk of the construction could get done before the end of the year," Pross said, adding some restoration work would likely continue into the following spring.

Council questions and responses Council members asked about temporary closures during construction. Pross said she could not give a definitive answer until Di Maria and the selected contractors set site schedules but that she expected the park likely would be closed during the construction season. On restroom access hours, Pross said the park will operate like an urban city park without gates and that the county is evaluating remote locks on restrooms to lock them automatically at night while still allowing programming and daytime access. "We're still trying to figure out what the hours will be," she said.

Councilors also asked about the adjacent golf course. Pross said the golf course will remain open and is being used as a teaching facility, including adaptive golf programming. "The golf course is staying. Golf is on an upswing right now ... we have no plans to change it at this time," she said.

Next steps and community input Pross and council members discussed future programming for the pavilion/stage and invited collaboration with the city's arts board on public art and events. The county plans to complete procurement and begin construction work in 2025; officials said they expect to host a grand-opening celebration once work is complete.

"We asked them if they would please allocate the funding so that we could do the full build out of this park at 1 time and not have to come back," Pross said of the county allocation decision.

Ending: County staff said they will return to the city with more-detailed drawings and schedule updates as procurement progresses and encouraged continued city coordination on programming and art.