West Bloomfield Parks seeks affiliate agreement with Bloomfield Schools to finish Pine Lake Park upgrades

West Bloomfield Parks and Recreation officials presented a plan for Pine Lake Park on school-owned property and asked the Bloomfield Schools board to review an affiliate agreement that would allow the township to complete engineering and construction through a combination of local funds and Oakland County millage dollars.

"We are very happy to have had a relationship with your school board as well as your schools," Robert Brooks, chair of the West Bloomfield Parks and Recreation Commission, told the board, summarizing the commission’s progress at Pine Lake and introducing the affiliate-agreement request. Brooks said the commission represents seven commissioners and that the group wanted the school board’s views and agreement on contract language.

Kelly Hyer, executive director for West Bloomfield Parks and Recreation, said the parks department began work at Pine Lake Park in 2023, dedicated the site, and has since been operating the property in line with other township parks. Hyer said neighbors and school administrators were surveyed during planning and that the parks department successfully hosted four middle-school track and cross-country meets at the site in 2025, bringing students and families to the park.

Hyer said West Bloomfield Parks plans to combine township budgeted capital with $1,500,000 from an Oakland County Parks millage to fund engineering, trail construction and meadow restoration in 2026. "We took the first year of truly operating… and then, depending on the timing of everything, maybe the baseball fields as well," Hyer said. She added that the parks department will put services out to bid.

The presenters also showed a concept for a nature-based playground built with logs, stone and native plantings; Hyer said the playground design would be ADA-accessible. Hyer said the concept carries a price tag "upwards of $750,000," and that the playground would be sited near the wooded area behind the parking lot and built by specialists who design natural-play spaces.

Hyer said legal teams from the parks commission, the school district and Oakland County are reviewing the affiliate agreement language the presenters forwarded last week; Hyer asked the board for feedback on contractual terms so the groups can proceed with bids and implementation. "Our lawyers, your legal team, our legal team, as well as Oakland County legal will be working out the contractual language," she said.

The presentation closed with the parks representatives offering to answer questions from the board and to provide additional design or budget detail on request. No formal motion or vote was recorded during the presentation.

Next steps: the parks commission and district legal counsel will continue to review the affiliate agreement language and the parks department said it will go out for bids for engineering and construction once contracting is agreed.