Glendale City Council approves $2.5M upgrades to Palmer Park

One of south Glendale’s key parks is about to get a major face-lift early next year after clearing its final hurdle on Tuesday.

The City Council voted 4-0 to award a $2.5-million contract for the Palmer Park improvement project, which will include expanded basketball courts, a skate park and wading pool.

The project has been in the works for four years, which is a long time, but officials wanted to make sure the design was just right, said Jess Duran, the city’s community services and parks director.

He said it’s been two decades since any work has been done on the heavily used park.

“After about 20 years, these parks get really beat up,” Duran said. “When we have an opportunity to go in and renovate them, we try to do the best job we can. We took more time to design and make sure all the elements were very functional and complementary.”

Over the summer, when the plans went to the Parks, Recreation and Community Services Commission, one resident complained about a lack of security in the park and people taking part after dark in illegal activities such as drug use. He said they would occasionally find their way into his backyard.

Duran said measures to boost security at Palmer Park include better lighting at night and designing an easier way for law-enforcement officials to get through the property.

“We expanded the width of the drive path and lengthened it, so it would be easier for police to drive through the park,” he said.

Fully renovated restrooms and new picnic tables will also be part of the renovation. The contract — mostly paid for with Community Development Block grants — was awarded to ARC Construction Inc., which has worked on Maryland and Carr parks in Glendale.

It will take some time to complete the project, and nearby residents won’t be able to use Palmer Park in the meantime.

The park is expected to close in mid-February when construction gets underway, and it will remain shuttered for eight months, Duran said.

Rondi Werner, president of the Adams Hill Neighborhood Assn., said she’s pleased with how much money is being spent on the renovations and that the project is finally getting off the ground.

“We’re in the densest part of the city, and we have the smallest amounts of parks and libraries,” she said. “There are a lot of apartment buildings where kids live, and they have no place to play.”

Down the road, Werner said she’d like to see a dog park in the area and added that there’s a vacant parcel of land just a few doors down from Palmer Park that would be an ideal candidate.

“We don’t have sidewalks on a lot of our streets,” she said. “It would be great if people could walk to a park and let their dog run free.”

Councilman Vartan Gharpetian said he’d also like to see a dog park. However, Duran said the idea has not been looked into yet.

The city is in the process of deciding how it will spend $16 million on local parks using one-time funds paid for by downtown developers.

Gharpetian is a major advocate of trying to work with local schools to open up their playgrounds to the public after instructional hours. The city, in turn, would help convert some of the grounds into usable park space.

The two likely sites close to Palmer Park are Columbus and John Marshall elementary schools. Opening parks there would fill the park void in south Glendale, Gharpetian said.

“Purchasing new park land is very, very difficult, to be honest with you, so the school sites are the best options we have,” Gharpetian said.

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Arin Mikailian, arin.mikailian@latimes.com

Twitter: @ArinMikailian