The Las Cruces City Council passed a unanimous resolution to build a park in the Mesa Grande Road neighborhood by next January.
Councilor Gill Sorg has spent the last eight years advocating for a park to be built in the area. Over the last two decades, multiple housing developments have been constructed, and Sorg reports that building a park is on the minds of his constituents.
“This area of the East Mesa hasn't had a park ever for children,” Sorg said “Very far away there's two parks, not at a distance that children up to ten years old could ever go and walk to…This is a park that’s been asked for, for eight years, and I’ve been asking staff to try to find a park.”
Sorg, who pushed for a one-year timeline for the project, brought up cost saving measures—including using existing city owned land for the construction site or trading a piece of property with the county. A total cost estimate will be dependent on the price of land, but construction costs for a standard two-acre park were estimated to be $500,000.
Building a park smaller than the standard two acres was also discussed, with Councilor Tessa Abeyta-Stuve speaking about how even small parks can make a big difference in a community.
“This community does need access to a park and be able to utilize all that the city can have to offer,” Abeyta -Stuve said. “From the perspective that I'm coming from, with different families utilizing parks, being around other families with parks, you know more of the pocket size parks or neighborhood parks are so accessible to people and are utilized really heavily in different areas.”
Councilor Johana Bencomo also indicated her support of the project, advocating for as large a park as possible.
“I really feel like the folks in this particular neighborhood deserve a good park and they've been clearly asking for one for a really long time. So I would urge us to really think about not having that mindset of, ‘Well they'll be grateful for whatever size park,’” Bencomo said. “Because I think that feels really unfair to me. We really should strive for getting these folks a park that fits their needs and that any other community throughout District Five or Six would get. So I think that we should really try to push for a larger park if at all possible.”
The council voted to explore funding the project out of the PhilippouFund, a fund that includes money from a settlement between a developer and the city, currently totaling approximately $900,000.
With the passing of the resolution, the city will now explore potential building sites which will determine the size of the park. Sorg outlined the next steps of the project for the city.
“Just doing a cursory look at the map, I counted five or six parcels of land that could have a park on them. There were parts of developments and parts not on developments yet,” Sorg said. “I was thinking that if the staff could go out and explore those five, six, seven or eight even possibilities in that area, and come back with the two best ones that we could choose from, that would probably be the best way to do it.”
