Shafor Park Tennis Court Reconstruction

Project Description and Purpose

The City will completely rebuild the Shafor Park Tennis Facility in 2018. The existing six court facility is over 60 years old, is in very poor condition, and has exceeded its useful life. The new facility will include five tennis courts and an adjacent 25-space parking lot as depicted on the attached rendering. The parking lot supplements existing on-street parking in the area and will serve the Oakwood Community Center (OCC), Gardner Pool, Shafor Park, and the five tennis courts. The plan will include extensive landscaping around the courts and parking lot. This project is being completed in cooperation with the Oakwood City Schools. As with the current courts, the new facility will be open to the public and will also be the home of the Oakwood High School Tennis teams.

Project Planning

Community discussion about the need to completely rebuild the tennis facility began in 2009 and 2010 when the City developed the Athletics & Recreation Master Plan.
Preliminary planning for the facility began in 2016 when the 35 member Budget Review Committee (BRC) was introduced to the project at their May 17, 2016 meeting.
The BRC was shown the first iteration of a design concept at their September 13, 2016 meeting. That first concept included building four tennis courts and a 39-space parking lot. The concept was also shared with the Oakwood Schools.
The BRC was briefed again on the project at their September 12, 2017 meeting and was shown both four court and five court options, including parking lots. The concepts were also shared with the Oakwood Schools.
The project was again mentioned to the BRC at their October 17, 2017 meeting where the five court and 25 parking space plan was shown. The Oakwood Schools were informed that the City was pursuing this five court and 25 parking space plan. The Oakwood Schools preferred the five court plan over the earlier four court plan.

Justification for a Parking Lot

There is currently no parking lot serving the Oakwood Community Center, Gardner Pool, Shafor Park, or the tennis court facility. The only available parking is on-street along the residential roadways. This includes 20 diagonal spaces on the south side of Collingwood Avenue, adjacent to the tennis courts, and any other on-street parking areas in front of residential properties in the neighborhoods. Construction of the proposed parking lot will provide 25 parking spaces to serve the Oakwood Community Center, Gardner Pool, Shafor Park, and the tennis facility. Coupled with 15 diagonal spaces that will remain on Collingwood, there will be a net increase of 20 parking spaces to serve the four public facilities. It is expected that this addition of 20 parking spaces will reduce the frequency and congestion of public parking in front of residential properties in the adjoining neighborhoods. Attached is a list of the programs and activities that took place at the Oakwood Community Center in 2017… showing about 125,000 visits. Gardner Pool had about 19,500 visits in 2017.