By Scott Gaertner
Lifestyle Contributor
Did you know that there has been a park planned right in the here in the heart of Scottsdale North for more than 20 years? It is called Sevano Park, and it is located right behind the Summit Shopping center. There has even been a large sign sitting at the site all this time, saying that the park has been planned. But most of us never noticed it, and nothing has ever been built. But maybe it’s time.
The Forgotten Park
This 15-acre park could easily fit a large dog park and a dozen pickleball courts and still have a ton of room left over for whatever. In my humble opinion, both of those amenities would be fantastic additions to the Scottsdale North lifestyle. Dog owners have had to drive too far for too long to de-water their dogs. And the rapidly growing masses of pickleball players have had to go even farther! (In case you have been hiding in a cave somewhere, pickleball is one of the fastest growing sports in the country…and the Scottsdale North demographic is exactly the pickleball demographic.)
While the land being dedicated by the city saves much in the way of costs, these are not inexpensive facilities. I know that at first glance you would think, “Build a dog park? Heck, give me a handful of seed and some chain link fence and my brother-in-law and I will build it this weekend!” But there really is a lot more to it than that. In this case, you also need to add irrigation, parking, bathrooms and the ongoing maintenance is huge. Anthem had a similar plan a couple of years ago and it came out to a couple million dollars. I would guess this one would be close to that, but wouldn’t it be worth it?
Speaking of worth brings up the topic of how this project would be funded. Good question.
The City of Scottsdale dedicated the park to enhance the area in the late 1990’s, but apparently only with enough money to fund putting a really neat sign on the property! As you might guess the city now says that they have no money to build anything there, or anywhere else. In fact, they say they have over $300 million of unfunded maintenance projects that are far overdue. But where there’s a will, there is a way. Is there a will? I sure hope so, and I am not alone.
There is a group in the process of setting up a 501c non-profit corporation to begin raising the funds needed to finance the process of building the pickleball portion of the project. If you have any interest, they are creating a website at www.sparcaz.com (Sonoran Pickleball and Recreation Centers AZ) that should be up soon. Its purpose is to provide a platform to disseminate information, promote events, and accept donations.
This will be Scottsdale North’s very first park, and this is all in the very preliminary stages. But it is getting very exciting, as things are beginning to come together and there is starting to be some momentum. I received a call as I was writing this article this morning from the Parks and Recreation Director Reed Parks. He said that they will begin public meetings on this topic very soon. This is really just the beginning of this conversation but stay tuned to this channel for updates. Let’s take Scottsdale North Park from just being a sign to a great addition to the best lifestyle in the Valley!
Scott Gaertner is an Associate Broker with Keller Williams Northeast, who for the past 25+ years has helped more people to find their lifestyle niche in the Scottsdale North area than anyone else.
