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Roanoke presents Washington Park master plan; city to apply for Land and Water Conservation Fund support
Summary
City parks staff presented a yearlong engagement-driven Washington Park master plan that prioritizes an upper-park pavilion with separate restrooms, an integrated hillside playscape, improved connectivity, and phased, costed amenities; the city plans a Land and Water Conservation Fund grant application focused on the pavilion and restrooms.
Katie Slusher, parks planner and construction manager, walked council through the Washington Park master plan, which staff developed after roughly a year of outreach that generated ‘‘over 1,300 touch points’’ with residents and park users. The vision emphasizes reconnecting upper and lower park areas, adding a larger pavilion in Upper Washington with a separate restroom building (to allow the pavilion to double as an amphitheater), resilient materials, a hillside playscape, expanded paths and flexible gathering spaces, and phased cost estimates for future grant applications.
Slusher said the city will apply this month to the Land and Water Conservation Fund, targeting the pavilion and restroom scope in Upper Washington Park because the pavilion emerged as an 82% priority among outreach participants and amphitheater/assembly features were strongly prioritized. Council members asked about adding solar to amenities, using native plants and neighborhood groups for maintenance, designing vandal-resistant restroom facilities and addressing subsurface landfill constraints; Slusher said consultants have experience designing with native plants and that site borings informed foundation choices to avoid surprises. The plan preserves flexibility for a community-use cottage and leaves some future roles open pending continued engagement.
