Give me space

As it encouraged the creation of more downtown housing, city leadership recognized that housing needed to be accompanied by nearby parks. Thus, since 2017, the city has been endeavoring to carve out space for a park in downtown Redwood City. After deciding, in 2018, to plan for not one, but three parks (one adjoining the downtown library, one replacing a portion of the Main Street parking lot, and one running alongside Redwood Creek), the city has focused on the easiest, and least controversial, of the three: The park that will sit alongside the library. And, just last week, the city received a large incentive to press on, when state Sen. Josh Becker, D-San Mateo, presented the city with a check for $4.45 million worth of surplus state funds for what is now being dubbed the “Parking Lots to Parks Project.”

Based on community feedback collected since 2018, conceptual plans for two different designs have been drawn up for the library park. Whichever is chosen, this roughly 1 1/2-acre park would replace Library Lot A — the parking lot at the corner of Middlefield Road and Main Street — plus Rosselli Garden (a plot of grass and a bench or two on the east side of the library) and, just possibly, a portion of the parking lot running behind the library. We should get a peek at the two park designs early next month, after which a final plan will be drawn up. Construction should then begin sometime in 2023.

Although we don’t yet know exactly what amenities the park will have, given the park’s close proximity to the library, it will undoubtedly have an open outdoor area the library can use for many of its various activities. And, given the lack of places for kids to play in Redwood City’s downtown neighborhood, the park will surely have some amount of play equipment. Beyond that, we’ll have to wait and see.

Once the park is complete, I expect the city to then focus on the linear “park“ planned for one or both banks of Redwood Creek, from Bradford Street to the Highway 101 undercrossing. This will probably be less of a traditional park and more of a parcourse: one or two paths for walkers, runners and cyclists that are peppered with benches and equipment for calisthenics. Two sections of the path exist today, the largest and most visible having been built alongside the Arroyo Green affordable senior housing project on Bradford Street between Jefferson Avenue and Main Street. Construction of a third section is now getting underway as work nears an end on the 353 Main Street Apartments building; that section will run alongside the creek for the length of that project’s parcel and will join up with the remaining existing section behind the Township Luxury Apartments building. The creation of the creek park is something to look forward to. Not only would its construction clean up and restore the corresponding section of creek, it would also encourage more people to visit the natural feature that is largely responsible for Redwood City’s very existence.

Downtown Redwood City is finally getting a park of its own, something that will undoubtedly be welcomed not only by the thousands of households now living in that neighborhood, but also by library patrons, folks working downtown, and even customers of the city’s downtown shops and restaurants. I can’t wait to spend time in this new park, and look forward to seeing how the city develops the other two phases of the downtown parks project.

Greg Wilson is the creator of Walking Redwood City, a blog inspired by his walks throughout Redwood City and adjacent communities. He can be reached at greg@walkingRedwoodCity.com. Follow Greg on Twitter @walkingRWC.