Roseville's $19 million parks makeover nearly complete

In an era when lots of suburbs are gunning for awe-inspiring amenities, Roseville has decided to play small ball.

Lots of money, sure: $19 million. But very little glitz.

The city is wrapping up a parks makeover whose planning began in 2008 and which was formally launched in 2010. The project is being financed with 15-year bonds, to be paid back through the tax levy.

"Unlike suburbs that have opted for community centers," said spokesman Garry Bowman, "the idea for us was to spread things out more throughout the community. A lot of the dollars went into the construction of six park buildings."

Crews swept across the city for several years, attacking 77 projects. Among them:

• Replacement of 14 playgrounds

• Resurfacing of all 14 of the city's tennis courts

• Significant upgrades at a six-field softball complex, a four-field Little League complex and a full-scale ballpark

• Renovation of three picnic shelters in Roseville's Central Park that had been sitting and rotting in water

• Trail work to create safer routes between schools and parks at a cost of $2 million.

Officials first divided the city into four quadrants, and from there into 15 smaller neighborhoods, with the aim of being attentive to each.

"We're just asking, 'What else can we do to make the community complete?' " said parks and recreation chief Lonnie Brokke.

Symbolic of what the city sought — based on a vast public consultation exercise — was the upgrading of warming houses to year-round parks buildings, Brokke said.

"We still need that warming feature, but people were looking for more year-round gathering places, to facilitate a neighborhood feeling," he said. "They wanted to see them more welcoming, open, airy, friendly, so they could be used for many things: birthday parties, meetings and so on."

At this point, Brokke said, the work is about 90 percent complete. And community participation in the project has been extraordinary.

Playground construction was done by volunteers in a sort of 21st-century barn-raising atmosphere. Four different nonprofits in the city, all devoted to parks, collectively raised and contributed more than $250,000.

Roseville's parks were remarkably well-planned from the start, Brokke said, with scenic natural features set aside for public use rather than given over to high-end housing. In this project, $1.5 million went into upgrades for natural features.

Stantec, a local firm, got that job based in part on a promise to pursue outside grants to top off the spending even more, he said, and it worked: $300,000 flowed in beyond what the taxpayers spent.

Council Member Jason Etten said the facilities upgrades were huge: "Roofs were falling in, buildings were being used just for storage."

But Etten said he's particularly proud of the natural resources work, something that he said no council had done before.

"We're making dramatic changes, yanking out thick undergrowths of invasive so native plants can succeed and the woods can return to what they were," he said. "People are finding the differences amazing."

David Peterson • 651-925-5039