What Do You Want In An Inclusive Playground In Hillsboro?

Press release from the City of Hillsboro:

October 21, 2020

The Hillsboro Parks & Recreation Department is undertaking an exciting new project: Designing Hillsboro's first truly inclusive park and playground — envisioned as a welcoming place for people of all abilities and backgrounds. Post Date:10/21/2020

The Hillsboro Parks & Recreation Department is undertaking an exciting new project: Designing Hillsboro's first truly inclusive park and playground — envisioned as a welcoming place for people of all abilities and backgrounds. This park and playground will be located on the west side of 53rd Avenue Community Park, just south of the new Hidden Creek Community Center that is currently under construction. We value your ideas as we begin to envision what this park and playground-for-all will look like.

The heart of this project is a 15,000-square-foot inclusive playground. Inclusive playgrounds provide a rich play experience, addressing all children and their caregivers' physical, sensory, and social needs. The playground will be designed to accommodate everyone, with various challenges and risk levels that allow children with disabilities to play alongside their more typically developing peers. The ultimate goal is to provide a park where all people can fully experience the joy of play, side by side.

The Visioning Tool is our first step in reaching out to Hillsboro's entire community, and it's just what it sounds like: a tool we are using to see what the people of Hillsboro want to see, do, and feel in this park. It's an opportunity for you to dream a little and share your ideas before we start drafting concepts for the park and playground.

The deadline for responses is November 4. Please provide your input. After the Visioning Tool exercise closes, we will review your input and then reach out to you with three concept design plans for your thoughts and comments.

We are at the very beginning of this important project. There will be more public engagement opportunities, followed by several rounds of design refinement, engineering, and permitting. If there are no unforeseen delays, we hope to be celebrating a park opening in 2023. Thank you for your time, and we look forward to reconnecting with you soon as the design process gets underway!

This press release was produced by the City of Hillsboro. The views expressed are the author's own.