City tries to revamp Tempe Beach Park

Plan dreams big but doesn’t include funding source yet

Tempe Town Lake is already a hot spot for festivals and water activities such as pedal boat rentals, but what if the area also had a zip line across the lake, a floating entertainment stage and an outdoor gym?

These and other cool possibilities are laid out in the city’s latest parks plan for Tempe Beach Park and the broader Rio Salado area.

The conceptual blueprint, which residents helped create, is expected to guide improvements over the next 20 to 30 years.

Tempe leaders still must figure out how to make it happen. That conversation is expected to begin in April. Pulling it off could require city funding, grants or partnerships with the private sector.

“This is a visionary plan but we think that anything is possible in that area if we’re smart about how we’re planning it and funding it,” Melissa Quillard, a city spokeswoman, said.

Upping the game at busy Arizona spot

Built in 1931, Tempe Beach Park is the city’s oldest park and home to music and cultural festivals, the city’s Fourth of July celebration and several races.

Tempe Beach Park is part of the larger Rio Salado Park, which stretches four miles from Priest Drive to McClintock.

The parks plan includes that whole area.

The parks are along Tempe Town Lake, which is the second most visited site in Arizona behind the Grand Canyon, with an estimated 2.5 million visitors each year, according to the city.

Tempe Beach Park was last renovated in 1999 with the construction of Town Lake, the two-mile-long manmade lake created by damming a portion of the often dry Salt River and filling it with water. The dam was replaced after it burst in 2010, draining an estimated 1 billion gallons from the reservoir.

7 activity areas envisioned

The city’s plan lays out seven types of activities envisioned along the river. They include:

❚ A place for nature and birdwatching: An ecological preserve on the western and eastern ends of the park with a path that highlights plants and animals native to the Salt River, birdwatching, boardwalk and a nature bridge.

❚ Volleyball and other sports: Updated sand volleyball courts with spectator seating, basketball courts, a skatepark and a boardwalk with lounge terraces, lawn games, table tennis and bocce ball on the north side of the lake.

❚ Art and performances: Open green space for public art and outdoor performances on the south side of the lake near the Tempe Center for the Arts with a proposed sculpture garden.

❚ Outdoor music venue: Event space at Tempe Beach Park and a small outdoor music venue on the north side of the lake.

❚ Adventure: A wheels park, rock climbing wall, and outdoor gym on the north side of the lake, as well as a zip line that traverses the lake.

❚ Floating entertainment stage and marina: A boathouse, a floating entertainment venue, splash pads, a dog park and a boardwalk for fishing on the north side of the lake near McClintock Drive.

❚ Shops and food trucks: The riviera, on the far east side of the lake, would have a promenade with kiosks and shops, a plaza for food trucks, art and fishing spots. A new pedestrian bridge that crosses the lake is also proposed.

The plan also calls for a shaded running, cycling and walking circuit that loops around the park, additional parking and new access points.

Taking greater care of Tempe Beach Park

The master plan also suggests adjusting the schedule of events hosted at Tempe Beach Park to ensure the park’s long-term health.

More than 30 special events are held there annually, and in 2018, more than 20 weekends were booked between May and September, according to the city.

The scale and frequency of the events poses a challenge for park management. Park staff must constantly maintain the park, restore the turf and re-landscape between events, but the tight schedule can make that difficult, city documents show.

The plan recommends spreading out events over the year and throughout the park to allow for a recovery period, as well as assessing whether fees, especially those charged to for-profit companies for using the space, are enough to cover upkeep.

“These events play such an important role, especially in the downtown area, so we are looking at possible changes with the understanding that these events are so much about what Tempe is,” Quillard said.