Bear Creek Park: A new place to gather and play on Carmel’s northwest side
Parks create memories. They are places to play, to connect, to wander, to explore. No matter your age, you likely have a favorite park from childhood or one that you love to visit now.
As our midwestern winter transforms into spring, we have a special behind-the-scenes look at a brand new park in development on Carmel’s northwest side! Bear Creek Park, still in the early stages, is coming, and we can’t wait to tell you more about it.
Bear Creek Park [located at the southwest corner of 146th Street and Shelbourne Road] boasts many natural assets, like prairie grasses and a creek, that Carmel Clay Parks and Recreation (CCPR) is working to preserve. Working with longtime partner SmithGroup [which also led the designs of Carmel’s Central Park and West Park], CCPR director Michael Klitzing is excited for community members to experience another one-of-a-kind destination park in Carmel.
Michael takes pride in the fact that CCPR Parks always gets public feedback on design, location, and usage. “Any successful public parks system gets feedback,” he says. And their approach to Bear Creek is no different. After receiving 16 proposals from design firms, SmithGroup was once again the top choice because they could count on them to use a dynamic public input process.
“It’s hard to tell the line between SmithGroup and Carmel Clay Parks. We work so closely together,” said Gregg Calpino, Principal at SmithGroup. Though they are a national firm, he acknowledged the importance of coming to Carmel and learning with the community to make the design process more authentic.
SmithGroup has been innovative from the start, encouraging CCPR to open a portion of the park to the public now to encourage people to explore the grounds and submit feedback via a posted QR code. “We want people to get out there and get dirty, “ Gregg said.
Michael liked this idea: “These experiences help people know what to suggest. When you go out and actually spend time in the space, you realize, for example, ‘oh, this may not be a good space for a ball field,’ so you may not want to suggest that.” In addition to this opportunity for input, there have also been a series of public meetings to discuss project proposals, including meetings with kids in the local schools to hear what they want to see in a new park.
CCPR has held multiple focus groups at Carmel schools to build a park local kids want to visit!
Bear Creek is developing at just the right time, helping CCPR meet two of the priorities of their current comprehensive plan based on public feedback: Bringing another park to Carmel’s West corridor, and embracing nature within their parks and programming.
Interested in learning about other park improvements in Carmel? Check here.
Embracing nature is key. The CCPR and SmithGroup teams continue to hear a distinct ecological focus from some of the community feedback alongside requests for playground amenities. “We are trying not to touch the natural as much as possible and also balance that with the [manufactured] play structures, which is very in line with what the community wants. Ecology is very appreciated, and we want to continue that tradition,” says Michael. Gregg agreed, commenting, “there is a tone of ‘tread lightly.’”
Bear Creek is more than just another Carmel park. It’s important to CCPR that every park has its own distinct features that bring people to it. There is a real push for adventure play (i.e., treehouses, zip lines) and natural ground play. “The kids want to go wild but they also want to have scavenger hunts in nature,” Gregg said.
Aerial photo of the current Bear Creek Park space.
So what are the next steps for the Bear Creek Park development?
SmithGroup will synthesize feedback from public meetings and present it to the CCPR staff, steering committee, and board.
This information will also be on the CCPR website for additional public feedback (hint: this is a chance to make your voice heard!).
A final master plan will be presented to the CCPR board for adoption.
Michael encourages continued community voice during this process: “We are so thrilled to have families use our parks, and we want feedback. We encourage you to be involved during the master plan presentation processes. We want to hear from you.”
Gregg echoes his sentiments: ”Keep sharing ideas even if it’s the smallest things; that makes a difference…We want to hear that, and we will do our best to incorporate that into the design.”
Families will have multiple opportunities to meet with park developers and share their feedback.
Approaching the design process in relationship with the local community is destined to make Bear Creek Park a sought-out place for neighbors and friends to come and play. The best part is that there is still time for you to check out the land, view the proposals, and offer your feedback!
Find all the ways you can do this:
View past public presentations and give feedback.
Visit Bear Creek Park each weekend from 9:00 am-5:00 pm.
