Tempe officials are looking to design an area on the north bank of Tempe Town Lake. The expectation is that it will be done in phases and include a few distinct parts.
There have been public meetings to gather input; the last one will be held later this month.
Craig Hayton is Tempe’s Community Services Director. He joined The Show to talk about this project.
Full conversation
MARK BRODIE: Craig, you’re taking community input on what to do on this land on the north side of the lake. Does the city have any ideas of what, in a perfect world, you’d like to do there?
CRAIG HAYTON: We absolutely do. We’ve, first off, just coming off of the second round of public input, it’s great to see not just on the survey level the engagement from the community, but also we’ve hosted two public meetings, one back in March, the second one in June, that had great turnout in person with some great engagement with our our staff, with the project team, but also with the materials that we had, and just seems to be some great excitement around that.
We’ve got a wonderful planning document that really helps guide the larger Rio Salado, so 135 acres of park space in and around the town lake itself. This is city-owned property that we have the challenge and opportunity to steward, and we’ve got about 20 acres on the north shore that is kind of in a state of under- or undeveloped, which is kind of unique for a landlocked city, so there’s a great opportunity with that.
And that planning document from 2018, we’ve fortunately got the the same design architect on that project as we have currently. And with that, we really have a great opportunity to engage with the public to see what is possible.
MARK BRODIE: What have you heard from residents about what they would like to see in that area?
CRAIG HAYTON: Yeah, the the community, both folks who live in Tempe, but also it’s one of our two regional parks within Tempe, so we it’s also a gathering space for folks in the region itself within the Phoenix metro area. Folks are real excited for a myriad of different things.
We’ve tried to enter this planning phase trying to strike a balance between active recreational opportunities and passive. You know, what opportunities do you have to come down and just connect with people in a bit more of a relaxed fashion, but also if you want to connect on a court or potentially in a unique recreational menu that what we built, there’s an opportunity with that. So finding a balance there.
But also we’ve had a great history for the past, hard to believe the town lake’s turning 27 this year in November, we’ve got a great history of special events in Tempe, and we know that Tempe Beach Park tends to be the epicenter for events in and around the Rio Salado.
How is it that we can kind of pull off of some of that energy on the north side, but also strike the balance with drop-in and everyday recreational uses, and ultimately we want folks who may never have been at the town lake or Rio Salado to come out because they’ve seen something that they would like to enjoy. But equally important would be folks who normally maybe roll through on a bike, have a chance to skateboard through, or just walk in a run, find a new reason to actually stop and enjoy the north side of the town lake.
MARK BRODIE: Well, so is the thinking then that this particular area of the North Shore will be less development, like less offices, apartments, those sorts of things that we’ve seen in other parts, especially on the the south side of the lake, and more open space or recreational places?
CRAIG HAYTON: Absolutely. It’s city-owned property, and it’s something that we would develop recreationally within. There’s, give or take, about 20 acres in three kind of distinct activity zones. So think of like a living a different living space within your home. You have different rooms for different purposes. But we want to make sure that there is that diversity between those zones, but also continuity and unity between that entire space, city-owned property.
We do want to make sure that it’s available for the public recreationally to utilize, it’s a transportation network for folks to get east and west. And then as we zoom back out, especially with the Rio Reimagined initiative, it’s a great opportunity for folks to get to the river and then along the river laterally, as well, regardless of community. And within that, though we will look at developing spaces for city property use and for, you know, city responsibility for development and maintenance, we also want to look creatively, are there some business opportunities for us to provide really unique, whether it’s a support amenity like a restaurant, kiosks or even maybe a recreational amenity on city-owned property that we’d partner with private business.
We’ve actually had some quite a lot of success on different properties that we’ve managed, actually in and around not just the town lake, but the city of Tempe, just in providing some partnership opportunities with local business.
Tempe Boat Cruisin' has been operating for this, earlier this year was their first season where they’re providing on-water recreational opportunities, and we just see there’s an opportunity to partner with business to provide really creative opportunities, but we see this as mostly a city-developed space focusing on recreation.
MARK BRODIE: So are you thinking things like walking or running paths, or maybe basketball court or pickleball court, or some other kind of sport activity space in that area? Is that kind of the thinking here?
CRAIG HAYTON: Absolutely. Within the we have the activity zones, we have an adventure zone that is kind of between the Elmore Bridge and the railroad bridge is where we see an opportunity for connections with nature. It’s probably our largest space out of those 20 acres, maybe about half of that. But then there’s an opportunity for some sport courts, as well.
We have an existing pathway that’s part of a transportation network. How is it that we can build off of that? We have some unique site constraints. Folks want to get down to the water. Can we provide a promenade along the water where folks can connect, kind of laterally along that water’s edge, that may not be an opportunity currently. Keep that levee path that maybe acts as a bit more of a transportation network for folks that want to go through on a bike that may be just coming from, you know, in Mesa, or coming down from Indian Bend Wash in Scottsdale, or using that full loop.
But then also providing some connection pathways into different nodes recreationally that would give folks opportunities to stop, especially within kind of the sloped areas that we’d have further up on the north side.
MARK BRODIE: Where are some of the possible sources that the money to do this will come from?
CRAIG HAYTON: Yeah, we want to we want to look as creatively as possible. We have our existing capital improvement program that come through GO bonds, specifically. We also have grant opportunities. There are some unique funding opportunities that may come from the federal government through local organizations that we can seek for grants.
And then we’re really going to be looking to our consultant team to to find out what additional opportunities that they think that we could be be looking at. But public-private partnerships, I think, are a great opportunity, but really in measured ways so that we keep the project as a public project and really limit the opportunities to a few within that 20-acre space of something that could be a potential pay-for-use for the public. But it would be unique, and we want to see business thrive, but it just in a way that supports the overall, you know, open recreational access to the space.
MARK BRODIE: So you kind of alluded to this, but I want to ask you more specifically. Like, when you think about this piece of land, how big of an opportunity is this for the city?
I mean, Tempe is, of course, landlocked. You’re not expanding anywhere. It seems like it’s not that often that a big piece of land like this is just available for development. Like, I wonder if the city sees this as like a real opportunity, maybe one of the last opportunities in the city to really do something like this.
CRAIG HAYTON: Absolutely. We we are very fortunate as a 40-square-mile, landlocked municipality to have a very diverse recreational system. So we see this as really some of our last un- or undeveloped space. We’ve had an amazing commitment by our mayor and council at redeveloping some of our existing park infrastructure, looking at assets by assets as playgrounds age, adding in ramadas.
But this really is, it’s far from a blank slate, but it’s probably one of the more blank slates that we have. It has some unique site constraints with levees, topography on site, land ownership, we’ve got water right up to it. But this is really a great opportunity for us as an organization.
I think that’s why there has been not just great staff interest and mayor and council interest, but also there’s been just great community interest with that. And I think this is our opportunity for 20 acres to collaboratively come up with a plan and then keep the momentum going so that we can actually deliver some pretty amazing improvements, and then hopefully look at other spaces in and around the town lake and make some really targeted improvements that would hopefully match the look and feel of what we’re trying to provide here.
MARK BRODIE: All right, that is Craig Hayton, Tempe’s community services director. Craig, thanks so much, appreciate it.
CRAIG HAYTON: Thank you, Mark.
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