Old plot, new name: Fox Meadows Park

$3 million set aside to build playground, picnic shelter, courts on city’s east side

The Longmont City Council Tuesday mulled over different suggested names for a new neighborhood park at 636 Deerwood Drive before deciding on Fox Meadows Park.

In a 6-1 vote, the council agreed to the name for the 9-acre parcel near the eastern edge of the city. City officials plan to spend just over $350,000 for the park’s design and about $3 million to build new amenities. The new park is expected to include a playground area, half of a basketball court, a three-wall handball court, a picnic shelter, a sledding hill, a fenced dog area and several other amenities.

“First, let me commend you for doing such great engagement with the neighborhood,” Councilmember Diane Crist, who voted against the resolution, said to city staffers Tuesday. “You actually got six pages of suggestions for names; I think that’s phenomenal.”

Crist, though, indicated that she wanted the city to consider naming more parks after women, as many parks and nature areas are already named after men.

Given its proximity to the Fox Meadows neighborhood, the vacant site had been “unofficially referred to as Fox Meadows Neighborhood Park,” according to a council memo. It sits adjacent to land owned by the St. Vrain Valley School District for the future planned development of an elementary school.

A developer dedicated the land to Longmont as part of Fox Meadows subdivision in 2004. It is in one of the oldest areas of the city “not currently served by a neighborhood park,” the city’s website says.

The city received roughly 50 different naming suggestions for the park ranging from “Fox Meadows Park” to names paying tribute to former city officials, community activists and city employees such as Leona Stoecker, who served as the city’s mayor from 1993 to 2001, the late Dan Benavidez and Jim Wall.

A few residents thought the site should be called “Future Park,”

with one individual writing to the city, “It’s had a sign saying Future Park the last 15 years. Might as well keep it.”

Construction is slated to begin on Fox Meadows Parks this summer and is expected to be finished by spring 2025.