A sign marks the future home of the Kevin W. Sloan park in Winnetka Heights. The park will be built in place of the Jefferson/Twelfth street connector that was shut down in October 2022. Photo by Emma Ruby.
Construction of the Kevin W. Sloan park in Winnetka Heights will finally begin this year, city planners say.
The park, which is named after the landscape architect who designed it before his death in 2021, will be built in place of the Jefferson/Twelfth Street connector that runs through a Winnetka Heights residential area.
The connector was closed down in October 2022, but the park has been in the works for years after residents voiced concerns that the .75 mile stretch had become a speedway for cars.
In 2018, the Advocate wrote that the Dallas City Plan Commission and City Council were expected to take up the issue in that year.
However, it was four years later, in a December 2022 Landmark Commission Meeting, that plans for the park were finalized.
In the Landmark Commission Meeting, plans for the park passed unanimously. The only stipulation that was voted on in the meeting was that Public Works will be required to consult with neighbors to ensure lighting from the park did not negatively glare into their homes.
Diane Sherman, Landmark Commission member for District 1, spoke specifically in favor of the original park plan which has a braided pathways crossing over a green space.
“When Kevin would describe this there would be a twinkle in his eye,” Sherman told the committee. “It was designed to have whimsy, it was designed to be fanciful.”
The braided pathways had been amended out of later iterations of park mockups, but Sherman, alongside District 6 member Rosemary Hinojosa and Alternate member Jeff Cummings, voiced they wanted to “see Kevin’s plan executed.”
Plans for a braided pathway through the Kevin W. Sloan park were presented to the Landmark Commission in December.
Now that the plan has been passed by the Landmark Commission, Winnetka Heights can expect to finally see movement on the long awaited park.
According to Tony Payberah, an engineering program administrator for the city who is working on the project, project planners will take January to work on feedback they received from the Landmark Commission meeting. This includes reinstating the original braided pathways into the plan, and discussing lighting options that will not interfere with nearby homes.
Payberah says the project will be advertised for construction in February and a contract for the construction will be awarded in April.
Neighbors can expect to hear the sweet sounds of construction by July or August, Payberah says.
Right now, construction is anticipated to last between a year to a year and a half.
The removal of the roadway itself will be funded by a $2-million earmark from the 2017 bond. This money will also cover “trees, landscape and sidewalks,” a GoFundMe raising money for the park states.
Additional beautification of the park, however, will be privately funded. The majority of those private funds were raised in Kevins memory after his death through a GoFundMe, which was started by Kevin’s wife, Diane Sloan, and the managing principal of Kevin’s studio, Matt Stubbs. As of January 2023, it had raised over $7,700.
“We don’t currently have a list of specific items the additional funds would go towards at this time but some options being considered are: Additional trees, benches, enhanced landscaping, park lighting or an enhanced park sign,” the GoFundMe says.
