In early June, the Department of Natural Resources Parks and Recreational Division, Genesee County Parks, the C.S. Mott Foundation and the City of Flint started to create a city-wide revamp of parks around Flint to create a 230-acre Flint State Park.
The project will include a revamp of Flint’s Riverbank Park, Vietnam Veterans Memorial Park, Happy Hollow Nature Area, Mott Park Recreation Area and the Chevy Commons County Park, which will ultimately make up Flint’s State Park while keeping their individual titles.
Restoration is set to cost around $70 million, with $60 million in grants from the C.S. Mott Foundation and the Federal Government through the American Rescue Plan Act. Additional funding will be raised through fundraising and grants, with $10-$15 million needed to complete the project.
Prior to the construction of the new park, community meetings were held at Mott Park Recreational Area, where community members provided feedback on what they’d like to see developed in the park.
Wade Trim, the local design firm that hired designers for the play garden being implemented in Chevy Commons, also set up meetings with local elementary-aged children to gather feedback on what they’d like to see in the playground.
Andrew Cole, an urban liaison at the DNR, said the hope is that this park will be something the community is proud of.
“We’re trying to help Flint start reclaiming those days of greatness,” Cole said. “It really is [our] hope that everybody in the community will take ownership of this park.”
The Flint State Park is set to receive a five-acre play garden that will tie in local history, sand and water-based play features, new restrooms, restoration of Riverbank’s Grand Fountain, picnic areas and improved lighting.
Inspiration for the Flint State Park was drawn from the Flint Riverfront Restoration Project, a plan with over $40 million in funding that was put together prior to the Flint State Park and originally released in 2010. The project included the removal of the Hamilton and Fabri dams in 2018 and renovations to both Riverfront Park and Vietnam Veterans Memorial Park, which are both included in the State Park project.
Alongside guidance from this project, the DNR, Genesee County Parks, the City of Flint and the C.S Mott Foundation have worked together in identifying additional improvements.
Each park will have a non-motorized trail connecting the quadrants to the Grand Traverse Greenway Trail. A three-mile paved trail that connects to Michigan’s Iron Belle Trail, a 2,000-mile biking and hiking trail that runs from Detroit to Belle Isle.
Vietnam Veterans Memorial Park will also be seeing reconstruction of the current boat launch, allowing access for canoes and kayaks.
Cole said the goal is to make Flint a destination for everyone all over the state to visit.
“It’s got such a unique quality to it which is hopefully what people will embrace,” Cole said. “You get a different feel from all of the different units, so you can get a full forested feel to an open prairie feel to an urban environment feel.”
The project is anticipated to be finished in the Fall of 2027.
Rylie Yeiter is a writer for the Michigan Times and can be reached at jasobii@umich.edu.
