Design for long-awaited park to be unveiled

After a dozen years and three recent public workshops, Carson City park planners are ready to unveil a conceptual design for a three-acre park in west Carson City's Silver Oak subdivision.

Principal Park Planner Vern Krahn said the new three-acre park at Oak Ridge Drive near College Parkway will be relatively packed with amenities.

The design includes a concrete half-pipe for skateboarders, tennis and basketball half-courts, an open multipurpose field and the requisite picnic area.

"It's more intense than most neighborhood parks," Krahn said.

The extra elements are a reflection of local residents' wishes and the city's needs, Krahn said.

Out of 24 Carson City residents who attended an April workshop, 16 voted for basketball courts, 15 for tennis courts and 13 for a half-pipe.

Silver Oak Park may also include portable toilets inside a permanent enclosure and a walking path extending to Nye Lane. And it likely will not be a "dog friendly" park.

Silver Oak developers set aside 13 acres for public space back in 1993. Three acres of the land were sold to the local Boys & Girls club, which later sold it to someone else, and seven acres were set aside for a possible future elementary school, leaving three acres for the neighborhood park.

The Silver Oak Development Co. had planned to create a park late in the development but after 12 years, with the massive subdivision growing more and still no park, neighborhood residents and city officials urged builders to move ahead.

The Carson City Parks and Recreation Commission is scheduled to vote on the design during its next meeting at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday in the Sierra Room of the Carson City Community Center, 851 E. William St.