Soccer field upgrades, bathrooms, new trail proposed at Kalamazoo city park – MLive.com

Emerald Park in Kalamazoo
KALAMAZOO, MI — The city of Kalamazoo is looking to invest over $1 million in improvements to a city park, seeking stimulus grant funding to cover the majority of the bill.
The Kalamazoo City Commission approved a resolution Monday, Dec. 5, to apply for an approximately $815,000 grant from the Michigan Department of Natural Resources to cover much of the cost for improvements at Emerald Park to install permanent soccer facilities with nets and benches, a permanent bathroom facility, a new asphalt trail, a drinking fountain and water bottle filling station and some other features.
The park is made up of a narrow strip of land located south of the intersection of Emerald Drive and Cork Street, along with a wider area bordered by I-94, in the Milwood neighborhood.
It is used regularly by the local Liguita and Liga soccer leagues, in partnership with El Concilio, a Kalamazoo nonprofit with goals to engage and empower the Hispanic/Latino community. On a weekly basis, between 250 to 300 players of different ages use the fields for at least one game, according to the city.
El Concilio Executive Director Adrian Vazquez-Alatorre told MLive/Kalamazoo Gazette the Latinx community has been using the city soccer fields on the weekends for over a decade. The park has been one of the main soccer fields for the Sunday soccer league, he said.
“For the Latinx community, soccer is part of the culture,” Vazquez-Alatorre said. “El Concilio has also used Emerald Park in the past years for the Academia Azteca Soccer league for youth ages 5 to 15.”
The current soccer area at Emerald Park has one regulation sized field and one smaller field, and the city would like to make improvements to the playing surface, and install permanent goals and a net to catch stray balls.
El Concilio partners with the city of Kalamazoo to organize youth soccer and other activities, he said. The league games run from May to October.
The proposed plan would also seek to address parking, by partnering with local businesses to increase parking availability on soccer game days.
The Michigan Department of Natural Resources Spark grants are a new grant opportunity through the state utilizing American Rescue Plan (ARPA) stimulus funding received from the federal government, the city said in the agenda packet for Monday’s meeting.
City staff held public surveys, meetings and conversations with residents to understand what they wanted at the park, city staff said in the agenda packet.
Vazquez-Alatorre said El Concilio staff and soccer coaches were involved in the meetings.
The proposed four-unit bathroom would be much like the restroom the city installed at Rockwell Park, Kzoo Parks Director Patrick McVerry said. The plan shows four separate units for park users to access, each with a sink and toilet and a separate locking door.
A new trail is shown on the plans for what the city would like to build. The city said the current trail is inadequate because it is over 20 years old with significant cracks and weeds growing in it, does not connect to the neighborhood, and does not connect the north and south ends of the park.
The city shared a plan that shows the improvements officials would like to make:
Kalamazoo's proposal for improvements at Emerald Park by fredcranberry on Scribd
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