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BEVERLY HILLS/ BIRMINGHAM — The city of Birmingham and the village of Beverly Hills are among the 11 Oakland County communities that were awarded a total of $608,166 through the 2023 Oakland County Parks Community Grant Program.
Beverly Hills
The village of Beverly Hills received $100,000 for the Beverly Park playground restoration project.
The current Beverly Park playground is over 20 years old and does not have many accessible features.
“We really wanted to not only update equipment, but make it accessible to people of all abilities,” Beverly Hills Parks and Recreation Board member Janice Hausman said.
Beverly Hills has been using Landscape Structures to help design the new playgrounds.
“I think we have designed a great playground that includes a lot of sensory elements and a lot more accessible features,” Hausman said.
The village received community feedback from a survey they sent out about the playground. The top three desired features that came from the survey were more accessibility and shade, and updated equipment.
They plan to use primarily turf as the surface because it is easier for people using a mobility device, such as a wheelchair or walker, to navigate.
The total cost of this project is $686,000. Aside from the grant, a majority of these costs will be funded by park millage funds.
“We are hoping this fall it will be ready for installation, but we have not gotten word yet from Landscape Structures whether they are still on track with that,” Hausman said.
Once construction starts, the playground will be closed to the public for about two weeks.
“We are very excited that we were recipients and very grateful that they chose our project to fund,” Hausman said.
Birmingham
The city of Birmingham received $25,000 from the grant program. This is the maximum amount for the pre-development category.
This predevelopment grant will likely go towards design and development plans for trail improvements along the Rouge River, beginning at Booth Park.
“Trail Improvements is a priority project for the parks and recreation bond that passed overwhelmingly by Birmingham voters in November of 2020,” Birmingham Parks and Recreation Manager Carrie Laird said. “We’ve been working on a concept plan for these trail improvements, currently in draft form, and we will soon be presenting it to our City Commission.”
The city will move forward with planning for construction once the concept plan is accepted.
“The grant will help accomplish exactly that — all of the pre-development work such as surveys and engineered drawings that can be bid out for construction, beginning in the Booth Park section of the trail improvements concept plan.”
Planned improvements include making the Booth Park entry area more open and accessible with a restroom facility, seating and landscaping. Five trail entry identifiers will be posted throughout the trail system from Booth Park to Linden Park, as well as confidence markers and wayfinding. The trail system will have features such as accessible viewing areas, boardwalk and rain gardens. They are also planning on adding more native trees.
This project will be completed by the date on the executed grant agreement with Oakland County, which has yet to be finalized. Laird said it will most likely be by June or July of 2024.
“We are so excited that Oakland County has made this program available for their communities and grateful for the support,” Laird said.
