TUCSON, Ariz. -The work to widen Tucson's Grant Road could lead to a new park at the busy intersection of Grant and Campbell.
The park would be small, cheap and temporary---to be dismantled when road construction begins there.
Demolition crews are taking away the last fragments of the old Bookman's at Grant and Campbell.
The land will be used for the Grant Road expansion but it could be four years or more before that happens.
Rather than leave the land empty, neighbors, and Ward Six Council Member Steve Kozachik are proposing a small, temporary park, with benches, shade, and maybe a mural. Backers call the idea a parklet.
Kozachik says, “The guidelines are it's got to be low maintenance and low cost. Not a lot of infrastructure. Things that can be moved when the project does come, like the big pots that are up and down on Campbell that are gonna match the esthetic. So we're not looking at building Reid Park on the Campbell-Grant corner."
Kozachik says the cost could be about ten thousand dollars.
There's already an example of a parklet. It's on Broadway near Park near the site of the Broadway expansion. A lot of the time there will be community gatherings here and maybe some food trucks.
Anne Barrett lives near Grant and Campbell. She likes the plan to make the spot a community asset instead of empty space that could fill up with trouble.
She says, “The first thing we're worried about is security. It's actually very very dark here. It's a very big space and dark. Working with the city which has been excellent to work with. They can help provide the electricity for that, for the lighting, so we've also gone further to then help design what could be a walk-through area and a pleasingly esthetic for all the neighborhoods around us."
The small simple park could be approved by late summer and complete just a few weeks after its construction begins.
