EDINBURG — Local officials here continue to address a need for quality of life amenities in north Edinburg by constructing new parks in the area, where they hope families take advantage of the spaces to grow community engagement.
In partnership with the Edinburg school district, the city broke ground Friday morning on its newest project — De Zavala Park.
According to Ramiro Garza Jr., mayor of Edinburg, this project is the first of many in the northern region of the city. As the Rio Grande Valley continues to grow, the goal of the city is to provide its residents with amenities closer to home.
“Our city continues to grow at a very rapid rate and we need to have parks as amenities for our residents as more people move into our city,” Garza said.
The park will be located near De Zavala Elementary School on Rogers Road. Although the park is located on school property, it will be available for use to the public.
“We started talking to the school and they offered this area here in the school to be able to have this park,” Garza said. ” We were able to get a grant also and prioritize city funds to build this facility.”
The 2,500-square-foot park will include a half-mile asphalt trail, a basketball court, a splash pad and two soccer fields. It will also include 58 parking spaces and four shaded structures.
The majority of the project is being funded by the city’s general fund while the Community Development Block Grant funded the splash pad.
In total the project cost $1.6 million.
Garza explained that the need for more parks was established after they conducted a community survey as part of their Edinburg 2040 program. The survey asked residents what they wanted to see in the city and returned over 2,000 responses.
According to Garza, parks and green space are among the top answers.
“It’s going to help greatly because it is going to be closer to where they live,” Garza said. “We have over 50 subdivisions under construction throughout the city and we need to provide services like this so that we can keep up with that growth.”
Miguel Farias, president of the Edinburg school district’s board, added that this project will not only be close to home for residents but will also motivate kids to go outside and be active.
“Let’s put it in their backyards, so they can come out and walk out here to hang out and give them a safe place to play,” Farias said.
Although they just broke ground on the park, Farias said they are already working on establishing new locations for another four parks.
“We are also in discussion with two more locations with the school district with the city and two more locations with our county commissioner out in the county area,” Farias said. “So we are going to be growing out in the north side where there is nothing right now for these kids to go to.”
He added that each of these projects will include amenities similar to the ones that will be seen here at De Zavala Park.
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