Santa Clara Community Park Master Plan

Thank you for reaching out and staying engaged with our parks.  The City of Eugene’s Parks and Open Space Division identified the need for a community park as well as a community center in Santa Clara/River Road in the 2018 Park and Recreation System Plan.  

As a part of that plan, the community park was prioritized for development to include a large playground, a spray playground, a large shelter, parking, and a restroom building.  While neighborhood parks are typically smaller and have a just few amenities, community parks can also include sport courts, spray playgrounds.  dog parks, trails, and specialized recreation facilities.

Importantly, a community center and pool aren’t required for the park to be designated as a “community” park.  The timing of a city investment in a major recreation facility in Santa Clara Community Park has not been identified, however the undeveloped southern half of the park  has been set aside for this purpose in our planning for the site.

One proposal that the City has been  engaging is from the Eugene Family YMCA, who is considering the park as one of two potential sites for a new facility to be developed somewhere in the River Road Santa Clara area. If this were to move forward, the park site could see a community center and pool developed on their timeline.  

On behalf of Parks and Open Space, thank you for sharing your concerns and look for a grand opening of the new park in 2026.

Thank you for your question.  All of Santa Clara Community Park currently requires dogs to be on a leash. Parks rules requiring dogs on leash apply to both developed and undeveloped parks, including natural areas.  The southeast half of the park along Wilkes Drive and River Loop 1 is managed as an undeveloped natural area.  It is not currently a dog park.  A future dog park is considered for this location in future phases of development.  

For a list of designated dog parks in the area visit: www.eugene-or.gov/dogparks
For more information on park rules visit: www.eugene-or.gov/parkrules

Hello and thanks for asking about the future dog park at Santa Clara Community Park.  The fence that was recently constructed along Wilkes Dr. was added to keep vehicles from illegally driving into the park, which unfortunately had become quite a problem.  While that fence may be incorporated into future dog park fencing, it’s existence does not imply that area is currently designated for dogs off-leash.  

Current schedule for park construction is 2023.  We’ll know more about how far our budget will take us and whether a dog park will be in the first phase of improvements as construction documents and cost estimating proceed in the coming months.  We will provide community updates with that information as it becomes available.  Thanks for the question.    

Angela,

Thank you for your enthusiasm and support for this type of event.  Unfortunately, 2022 would be premature for setting up a farmers market or public event at Santa Clara Park as the infrastructure and amenities have not been built yet.  An event like this would require parking so as not to negatively impact the neighborhood, also portable restrooms etc.  2023 would be a better planning target assuming all of the construction is complete by then.  It is a bit too soon to commit to an exact date as the park is not even on a reservations schedule at this time.  Please stay in touch as this is the type of activity that the park is intended to support once it is open, its just too soon to implement at this time.  

Regards,

Mark

mkosmos@eugene-or.gov

Community gardens have been on the design table since the first workshop and the topic of biodiversity gardens has as well, thought not by that name specifically.  We love native plants but we we also know what it takes to maintain them in the context of a developed park and that has to be taken into consideration too.  As we develop more detailed plans and determine our construction and maintenance budget priorities we will consider where it could be appropriate.  We are currently in the master planning and phasing part of the process and have identified the three oxbows as having the most "natural" habitat worth preserving and possibly enhancing.  That is where our efforts would be concentrated for this park when we get to those phases of construction.

Yes, we have considered traffic coming to a community park.  That consideration happens very early, so that we know a park location is appropriate for the uses we plan for it.   As for "misuse scenarios" yes, we consider this from many angles when siting elements in the park and like to keep high visibility on them from public roads and our parking areas in general.  We do plan for gating the parking lot overnight and our restrooms are designed so they can be locked at night as well.  Having a park that is visible to everyone helps a lot.  We heard that everyone likes to use the park now and often for walking the perimeter.  Having that formal trail encircle the developed park helps us to get community "eyes" on the park which works really well with our other parks and park-watch program.  

Thank you for your interest and requests for phasing priorities at Santa Clara Community Park.  We do have difficult choices to make in developing a phase 1 plan that focuses on priorities, needs and desires for this region of Eugene.  While our draft budget does not currently call for including any of the courts in the phase 1 plan it is still an ongoing design and budgeting effort and it has not been finalized yet.  We will be using the third survey to help us make those decisions so please fill out the survey if you have not already.  There is one piece of good news that we can share with regards to your concern for availability of Pickleball in north Eugene.  We do have a park that will be getting pickleball courts built in 2021 in north Eugene at Striker Field.  That is much sooner than the projected construction of Santa Clara Community Park and it will provide a park location in north Eugene for Pickleball.  

The pump track would take considerably more space and yes, it is too late to bring this into the mix based on where we are in the public process.  Given the space needs of out other park items I'm not sure it would have physically fit with everything we are planning for this park.  Thank you for suggesting it though and do bring it up again if see an opportunity in a future park design process, first meetings are great for casting a wide net and putting all ideas on the table for others to rally around.

Thank you for your suggestion.  Nature play has definitely been on our radar in recent years but it does not necessarily replace the need for children's play equipment and especially all inclusive play equipment.  Nature play is something that could be considered in addition to the playground shown, perhaps in conjunction with the Community Center in a future phase but it definitely needs more thought and due diligence.  We will study this and consider it as we work up our final master plan and look for similar interest from community members on the surveys as well.

Good point, I will let our administrators know.  This is a setting in the larger Engage Eugene platform so it would it would need to be changed in a setting that affects all of the projects on the website if that is a possibility.  Thank you for sharing.