With a price tag of $25 million, Alice Rodriguez Martinez Park in South Waco will not only be the largest investment in park infrastructure in the city’s history, but its most inclusive.
Those dollars are intended to build more than a flagship recreation facility when shovels hit the ground next month. Disability advocates say the park is an investment in unmet needs, providing a park welcoming to all Wacoans.
“That’s been a topic of discussion and need for over 10 years now,” said Jonathan Cook, Waco’s Parks and Recreation director. “Everyone of all abilities can come and find peace and happiness in this park.”
When construction wraps up in 15 to 18 months, Alice Martinez Rodriguez Park will become the Waco area’s first public “inclusive” park, meaning every facet of its design — including play structures, pathways, bathrooms and even noise levels and color schemes — accommodate visitors with varying disabilities.
The closest inclusive park is in Temple, though it’s a fraction of the size proposed for the Alice Martinez Rodriguez Park, which will rival those found in the state’s largest cities.
Toby Kurosky, executive director of Mobilize Waco, a disability justice group, said disabled residents were consulted on the park’s design “throughout the entire process.”
“We’re often ignored in all aspects of society, from legislation to just everyday life,” Kurosky said.
But he said that wasn’t the case with Alice Martinez Rodriguez Park.
“(The city) didn’t tell us how it was going to be done, they asked us how it should be done,” he said.
The new park, bisected by Waco Creek, will occupy 30 acres left over from the demolished Floyd Casey Stadium grounds, adjacent to the Cordova Springs mixed-use development now under construction.
The park plan calls for contoured landscaping, allowing children in wheelchairs to join their their peers on the way to the play area’s pinnacle: A massive slide resembling Quetzalcoatl, the feathered serpent god central to Aztec mythology.
The park features a roll-on-roll-off wheelchair swing, a wheelchair friendly pump track for the brave, an at-grade splash pad, and areas designed for solitude and quiet, an important consideration for autistic visitors who might become overstimulated.
The ethos of inclusivity extends to culture and history as well. The park gets its name from former District 2 Council Member Alice Rodriguez, Waco’s first Hispanic female council member, who served South Waco for more than three decades. Placards honoring other local Hispanic leaders are planned for a story trail winding through the premises. The stories will be told in English and Spanish.
“They really spared no expense,” Kurosky said, noting details such as adjustable-height changing tables in bathrooms capable of supporting an infant or adult.
These types of choices help realize the second part of the city’s three pronged accessibility approach: Can users get around, can they stay and can they play?
The first principle is paramount, so the Alice Rodriguez Martinez park will employ soft rubber surfacing throughout in exchange of traditional woodchips, which tend to bog down wheelchairs.
A park for all bodies
The soft, rollable surface is invaluable for children like Thomas “T-Three” Hawthorne, a 10-year-old Wacoan with osteogenesis imperfecta, a rare genetic condition resulting in brittle bones and requiring a wheelchair for most activities.
At most existing Waco-area parks, Hawthorne’s autonomy ends where the woodchips begin.
“Then we have to go and pick him up to take him to the swings or where his friends are,” said his mother, Courtney Davis.
“He’s a real boy’s boy,” she said.
As she was speaking, Hawthorne shared his favorite YouTube video he saw this week: “There was a man in a wheelchair and he was at the skatepark and he learned to do back flips in his wheelchair!”
The surface envisioned for the new park gave Davis some peace of mind that a tumble won’t mean a broken bone.
Hawthorne’s stepfather, Jeremy Davis, appreciated how disabled and able-bodied users won’t be segregated into separate areas, but rather “intertwined” through the playground’s design.
“If he wanted to move independently, he could, and he can push his own wheelchair, so on that new surface, he would be able to be independent and not rely on us,” Jeremy Davis said, who is a Waco ISD trustee and founder of Mentor Waco. “These are moves the city should have always made, but I’m glad that we’re here today. I honestly think all of Waco will be better for this park.”
Cook, the Waco parks director, said many of the features debuted at the Alice Martinez Rodriguez Park, such as the soft surfacing, will become standardized at future city parks and retrofitted into existing ones.
“This will be a new standard for how we develop and build parks from an accessibility standpoint,” Cook said.
Of the $25 million budgeted for Alice Martinez Rodriguez Park, $16.5 million will go to Millis Development and Construction of Dallas. Another $2.2 million is set aside for a future renovation of the Hart-Patterson Track Complex. The remaining funds are allocated for design and professional services and playground equipment.
