COLUMBIA — The North Village Park coming to downtown Columbia was designed with accessibility in mind, according to Gabe Huffington, the director of the city's Parks and Recreation department.
Construction begins in a few weeks on the 2.3 acres of land, which will feature a playground, outdoor performance area, sidewalk improvements and additional parking spaces.
The site will also have ADA compliant sidewalks, accessible parking and sensory-based playground features, Huffington said.
Some of the sidewalks currently have telephone poles in the middle of them, which obstructs the path. Huffington said they are working with electric companies to move wires underground, in order to make those sidewalks more accessible.
The park will be located a block away from the Wabash bus station, allowing for easy access to public transportation.
One of the main goals of the park is to bring more events and business to downtown, Huffington said.
"We see this entire park as a space that is going to create a lot of events," Huffington said. "We outgrew a lot of our spaces downtown with some of our larger events."
The family area of the park is set to feature a playground. Designs have not been finalized for the playground, but Huffington said they are looking at ground-level play structures, ramps instead of stairs, and a rubber surface opposed to mulch.
The park will also feature art from three artists and will be designed around art and music, following the theme of Columbia's North Village Arts District.
Huffington described the park as a unique experience where people will get to be "immersed in this public art exhibit that we are creating."
Park History
In 2022 the Columbia Parks and Recreation department acquired two adjacent pieces of land from Union Electric Company, 209 St. James Street and 210 Orr Street.
The land was a former brownfield site, meaning the land was abandoned due to concerns of contamination.
In 2023 the city of Columbia was awarded a grant from the Missouri Department of Economic Development, which offset costs for the development of the park. Later that year, the city bought two more properties to incorporate into the park: 307 and 309 St. James Street.
In 2024 Columbia City Council approved the parks master plan and officially named the property "North Village Park."
Due to the grant guidelines, the park should be finished by December 31, 2026.
