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DELAWARE — Delaware’s newest splash pad quietly opened over Memorial Day weekend at Unity Park on the city’s south side.
The water feature is the latest step of a multi-phase effort to transform the former parks maintenance site into a neighborhood community space. Visitors can cool off daily from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. in the summer months.
However, as families began visiting the new splash pad near 50 Ross St., comparisons to the city’s larger dinosaur-themed splash pad at Veterans Park quickly surfaced on social media.
Some residents praised the investment, while others expressed disappointment that the new splash pad appeared smaller and simpler than they expected.
According to Delaware Parks and Recreation Director Ted Miller, the two projects were intentionally designed with different purposes in mind.
“Veterans Park is more of a community park,” Miller said. “Unity Park is more of a neighborhood park.”
Delaware’s broader parks master plan published in 2022 specifically defines “neighborhood parks” as smaller, localized spaces meant to serve nearby residents within roughly a half-mile radius.
By contrast, a “community park” is defined as a park ranging from 10 to 100 acres in size that attracts visitors within a one- to three-mile radius.
Miller said city officials intentionally scaled the project to fit the size and function of the neighborhood park.
“We can’t put in an 80-car parking lot out there,” Miller said. “Everything’s just kind of scaled to that neighborhood park size.”
From industrial site to community space
Miller said Unity Park was formerly the city’s parks operations headquarters before maintenance buildings were removed to make room for green space and public amenities.
“It was really an industrial site that we’ve kind of been converting,” Miller said.
The city has spent years gathering public input and developing a long-term master plan for the three-acre site.
“We’ve been doing it for at least eight years, getting surveys, finding out what the public wants to see out at that park and just master planning the park itself,” Miller said.
The splash pad is considered the first major phase of the park’s green space redevelopment, following earlier improvements such as the community garden on the east side of the property.
Miller said the city wanted the Unity Park splash pad to function not only as a seasonal water feature, but also as a year-round community gathering and event space connected to the neighboring Unity Community Center.
“The splash pad is only open two or three months a year from Memorial Day to Labor Day,” Miller said. “We also wanted to have kind of an event space because that seems like a very popular attraction out there at the park.”
Different projects, different budgets
The city’s Veterans Park splash pad opened in 2016 as part of a much larger $2.2 million recreation project funded through a voter-approved income tax increase, according to previous reporting by the Columbus Dispatch.
That project included a dinosaur-themed “spray and play” area with slides, playground equipment and themed water features.
The Veterans Park splash pad was built alongside a destination playground area that regularly attracts visitors from across the city and beyond. Miller said the Veterans Park facility can also become crowded with daycare groups and large gatherings during the summer.
Public feedback included in the city’s parks master plan identified the Veterans Park splash pad as “overused,” with continued growth expected to put even more pressure on the facility.
By contrast, Miller said the Unity Park splash pad along with a new proposed restroom facility will cost roughly $400,000, funded through a combination of impact fees, city parks funding and grants, including support from Preservation Parks and NatureWorks.
He noted the city completed much of the work internally to reduce costs and speed up construction timelines.
Unity Park was also envisioned as a smaller-scale neighborhood amenity intended primarily for nearby residents and Unity Community Center programming.
“We really wanted the community to walk to this,” Miller said.
The master plan defined neighborhood parks as intentionally designed around one “signature amenity” and not meant to function like large destination parks.
Miller added the city wanted a simpler splash pad system that would be easier to maintain long term while still offering flexibility.
The spray nozzles can still be changed or updated over time, he said, but the overall layout was designed to double as usable event space throughout the year.
More improvements still coming
Miller also emphasized the splash pad opening is not the final phase of work at Unity Park.
Future concepts shown in a draft Unity Park plan include additional lawn and event space, exercise equipment, expanded landscaping, a proposed STEAM lab, trail connections and further renovations to the Unity Community Center building.
The draft plan also includes the proposed restroom facility near the splash pad, which Miller said is expected later this summer.
Additional landscaping, lighting, seating and shade structures are also planned as part of the broader redevelopment effort.
Miller said the city pushed to have the splash pad operational by Memorial Day, even though some surrounding site work remains unfinished.
“That’s why the grass is not up and growing yet,” he said. “That site will look a lot better a few more months down the road.”
Miller said the city hopes to hold an official ribbon-cutting ceremony later this summer after additional landscaping and site work are completed.
