North Boulder Park Renovation

The City of Boulder Parks & Recreation (BPR) is renovating one of the City’s most beloved neighborhood parks, North Boulder Park.

The design of the neighborhood park has the potential to reimagine the look, feel, and function that is unique to this community while retaining the core multi-use functions the park is known for. The park will focus on flexible multi-use spaces, youth (including teens), play, discovery, wellness, fitness, recreation, green infrastructure and stormwater mitigation.

Para recibir más información en español, por favor llame al 303-413-7200 x9.

We are now finalizing the design shared at our previous events! Since the last update, we have compiled community feedback, met with focus groups, and attended a Teen event (put on by Teens for Teens). Based on feedback, we have updated some aspects of the plan; maximizing the multi-use lawn spaces ensuring pick up games for volleyball, ultimate frisbee, soccer, winter skiing, and more continue to thrive at the park. Formal plaza spaces, an event lawn, restroom / pavilion, fitness court, basketball, and main play area will remain on the north end of the park (north of Cedar Ave.) while the ballfields and informal activities continue to be planned for the south end of the park. Some of the native planting areas have shifted to minimize impacts to existing trees based on Forestry staff input. Likewise, the dry stream bed will now be focused to the area of greatest stormwater impact to reduce conflicts with winter skiing. Final tweaks are being made to the design and soon we will provide the updated plan to keep the community and neighbors informed. Stay tuned and please scroll down to sign up for project updates.

Spring Engagement Window has closed and the design team is working on advancing the plans.

Thank you to all community members, park users and visitors who joined us at North Boulder Park in March 2025 where staff revealed the updated concept plans. Kids had a blast with Jeff & Paige while staff gathered valuable feedback, which will influence the design going forward. Once the schematic design plans have been developed further, staff will seek the community's input one more time before finalizing the plans and moving closer to construction.

Staff has been working on an overall framework plan for upgrades to the park. These include:

• An elevated nature play experience for kids of all ages
• A teen space
• Picnic shelter renovation
• Circulation and universal access improvements
• Utilizing plants that require less watering and planting additional trees
• Addressing drainage and flooding issues by creating a dry creek bed that can also accommodate play features
• Integration of the new Alpine-Balsam Plaza and flood channel inlet

There is a need to dig up parts of the park to fix mentioned drainage issues, which allows us to take a climate-based water-wise approach increasing shade trees and native grasses in the park.

We will ensure to retain major activities after renovation is complete including informal activities on the green like picnicking, flying a kite, hunting for bugs, etc. and winter activities like cross country skiing.

Once we have a schematic design we will share it with the community during the next engagement window.

We anticipate that there will be park impacts on the south side due to the upcoming construction start for the nearby Western City Campus.

Boulder Parks and Recreation has selected a design team for the park and playground renovation and is looking forward to kicking off the schematic design process as soon as contracting has been completed. In the meantime, Parks Planning is coordinating with Utilities - Public Works and Facilities to ensure a seamless tie-in between the anticipated storm water infrastructure upgrades, Alpine-Balsam Project and the park.

The new Fitness Court® is installed and available for use at North Boulder Park. We celebrated the grand opening on a chilly October 27 morning! Download the free Fitness Court App to gain access to the largest free outdoor gym network and expert training wherever you go. Learn more about this Fitness Court ®.

Additionally, staff are coordinating stormwater management improvements and park renovations. Boulder Parks and Recreation interviewed consultants for the design of the north end of the park on Friday, Nov. 17. The selected consultant will build upon community outreach that was completed in 2022.

Based on feedback from the community and the Parks and Recreation Advisory Board (PRAB), staff developed two concept plans for the North Boulder Park Site Plan.

The two concept plans can be found in the 2022 October PRAB packet starting on page 12.

Plans consist of active play areas and areas for passive recreation and gathering. The active play areas in both plans contain the playground equipment for 2 to 5 and 5 to 12 age ranges, and water play opportunities.

The passive spaces in both alternatives include the shelter, bermed areas, and open turf. Teen-friendly features and amenities are also incorporated into both active and passive recreation areas.

The fitness equipment would be relocated and updated. It would also include adjacent space to provide opportunities for health and wellness programs.

The proposed active and passive space areas in each alternative would minimize impacts to the existing park site, including mature trees, to the greatest extent possible.

Both concepts place their focus on an expanded playground consisting of more natural materials and play elements along with better circulation and improved universal access.

Community feedback to these two concepts was received in late 2022 and will influence the schematic design, where the programming will be further solidified.

The existing playground equipment at North Boulder Park was installed in the late 1990s and has surpassed its useful life. Playgrounds generally have a 25–30-year lifespan before needing to be replaced as part availability becomes an issue on older models and repair frequency increases.

Replacement of older playground equipment also allows the city to keep up with current playground safety standards and address changes in playground trends and design.

A brief history of the North Boulder Park playground:

• Late 1990s: Existing playground equipment installed at North Boulder Park.
• 2014: Portions of the playground around the park shelter were renovated including addressing significant accessibility concerns identified in the department’s transition plan resulting from an update to the Americans with Disabilities Act. The renovation project also included installing new exercise equipment near the playground, half-court basketball court and ping pong table.
• 2018: A small bike tot-track was installed on the northeast corner of the playground. This installation was possible as part of funding for an art sculpture that was not able to be realized.
• 2022: The restrooms were renovated for year-round access. The fitness equipment near the playground was removed.