Open Lands & Trails Update - 2024 Projects
A first-of-its-kind hybrid park and natural area designed to accommodate all abilities is on track to break ground in southeast Loveland this spring, bringing universal playground equipment, amenities and outdoor recreation opportunities to the Big Thompson River corridor.
For Loveland Open Lands and Trails Director Marilyn Hilgenberg, seeing the multi-faceted Willow Bend project come closer to a reality after a decade of planning, design and clearing hurdles is a relief, to say the least.
“We really want to get that one done,” she said. “It has so many great features. It’s like a triple whammy, with the trail, open lands and adaptability. There are some really awesome components.”
Willow Bend is just one of many parks or open space projects getting underway in Loveland this year. Also on the list are new segments of the city-wide recreation trail, a 450-acre hiking and biking haven and future river access at Glade Road.
Willow Bend adaptive park and natural area
Loveland Parks and Recreation first identified the 77-acre property at 2538 E. First St. as a potential park in its 2014 master plan, but it would take another decade for the city to acquire the necessary parcels, raise funds for construction and finally set a course.
The centerpiece at Willow Bend will be a universal access playground, one of just a handful across Northern Colorado, according to Parks and Recreation Planning Manager Bryan Harding. Not only will it accommodate users with physical disabilities, he explained, it will also have features accessible to those with cognitive, auditory, learning or emotional disabilities.
“As we like to say, the universal access playground won’t necessarily have everything for everybody, but the goal was to have something for everybody,” Harding said. “That’s been a big piece of the planning and design process.”
The park portion of Willow Bend sits on approximately 10 acres. Among the many other amenities coming to it are a new site entry and parking area, a multi-purpose sports field and court, picnic shelters, shade shelters and paved walking paths, all built to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act.
“It will have a lot of features you don’t see in other playgrounds, from different types of play equipment, to things like even a concrete slide,” he said, adding that concrete doesn’t create static electricity, which can damage electronic hearing devices, or heat up, like more traditional slides.
Other ADA features include year-round restrooms with running water, flushing toilets and adult changing stations, plus mobility device charging stations.
The rest of the property will be dedicated to open space, Harding said, with another parking lot, a trailhead and accessible connections to an outdoor education amphitheater, a fishing pond with ADA-compliant dock and the East Big Thompson trail, which connects with downtown Loveland and will eventually stretch to Interstate 25.
Total costs for construction of Willow Bend are just over $8.6 million. The city has received $2.2 million in state and federal grant funding towards the project and the balance ($6.4 million) will come from capital expansion fees earmarked for parks and recreation, Harding said.
“All of those capital expansion fees are collected from new development and specifically set aside for the expansion of the parks and recreation system in response to new development in Loveland,” he said. “And that’s really a perfect fit for the setting of Willow Bend.”
Willow Bend has one last hurdle to clear before work can go forward. On Tuesday, Loveland City Council will vote on a $6.6 million construction manager at risk contract for the project. If approved, groundbreaking could be as early as mid-April, Harding said, and work is expected to last around 10 months.
Trail additions and improvements
Concurrent with the Willow Bend project, Open Land and Trails will also be building the next segment of the East Big Thompson trail, starting at Boise Avenue.
The combination hard and soft surface trail will stretch 1.3 miles to the east through the river corridor, ending at the new park and natural area.
Work is slated to begin on the project sometime in early summer, and the goal, Harding said, is to finish it around the same time Willow Bend opens.
Preliminary plans are now underway for additional segments of the East Big Thompson trail that will eventually connect with a Johnstown trail system east of I-25.
Later in the year, the final unpaved segment of the city’s 21-mile recreation loop will finally get hard surfacing. Starting sometime in late August or September, Open Land and Trails will be paving the 0.7 mile stretch next to the Big Barnes Ditch from Namaqua to Wilson avenues.
According to Hilgenberg, the city and ditch company recently came to an agreement for a permanent trail easement, allowing the improvements to go forward. The work will take approximately three months, and is timed to coincide with the end of raptor nesting season.
Finally, walkers and bikers will soon have access to another half-mile of soft surface trails in the Cottonwood Run Natural Area, near First Street and Taft Avenue. In recent weeks, crews have added the new loop and now it’s just a matter of waiting for the vegetation to fill in before opening it, Hilgenberg said.
“It’s a great meadow for the wildlife corridors through there and along the river,” she said.
Additional natural areas
Hikers, bikers and anglers will soon have new Loveland destinations for their sports with the addition of the Wild and Dakota Ridge-Skyline natural areas on the west side of the city.
The former will feature access to the Big Thompson on city-owned property at U.S. 34 and Glade Road, according to Harding. The Open Lands and Trails Department is planning a small parking lot on the site and walking trails to the river.
Opening the Wild natural area is contingent upon the installation of a new stoplight on U.S. 34 by the Colorado Department of Transportation, slated for sometime this summer.
Less than a mile to the east, Open Lands and Trails is also preparing to open the new Skyline-Dakota Ridge natural area on property formerly slated for development, Harding said.
“It is literally the very first foothill where the Great Plains start to rise up,” he said. “There are several different ecosystems on those properties, and really, really expensive views. It’s a completely unique experience here in the city of Loveland.”
Comprising approximately 450 acres, Skyline-Dakota Ridge will offer a “true hiking experience,” Harding continued.
The city is currently working on designs for a parking area and trailhead on Rossum Drive and up to six miles of trails on the property, and expects to go out to bid for construction later this year.
For more information about Loveland Open Land and Trails, visit lovgov.org/services/parks-recreation/open-lands-natural-areas.