West Granite Creek Park threatened by paved parking lot plan!
ACTION ALERT October 2024: The mayor and council will soon vote on whether or not to restore West Granite Creek Park to car-free. Please email the City Council ASAP asking them to restore our park and trail to car-free. Find instructions here. Our recent press release expands on this urgency.
The City’s plan to permanently pave West Granite Creek Park (WGCP) as a parking lot would sever our Greenways Trail and destroy our natural community park. Already, cars speeding in and out of WGCP pose a serious danger to bicyclists and pedestrians, even before paving.
This once beautiful, natural riparian park, which is designated open space, was created by an impressive collaboration of nonprofits since the 1980s as part of Prescott’s car-free Greenways Trail system. WGCP was established as a riparian natural park and car-free Greenways Trail by Resolution No. 3274 of City Council in July 2000 as part of the West Granite Creek Park Master Plan.
In fact, the car-free Greenways Trail through WGCP was the very first project of PAT back in 1997 when we identified this trail section as paramount to connecting the east and west sides of Prescott for bicyclists and pedestrians. We joined many volunteers to build it with donated materials (photos are from late 2000).
In 2021, the City removed its own barriers at the end of Granite Street to allow parking in WGCP. Representatives from PAT and other concerned nonprofits as well as residents of the nearby Dexter Neighborhood were told repeatedly for three years that this parking was temporary and the City would soon replace the barriers and restore the park and car-free Greenways Trail as it had been.
Instead, in 2023, without consulting those of us who care for and helped to create WGCP, the City paid for a design to permanently pave WGCP as a parking lot (find it linked below). The City’s plan to turn our park into a permanent paved parking lot would sever this section of our car-free Greenways Trail and destroy this natural riparian habitat and community park.
We are now organizing to present the City with a better plan. Parking could be shifted to nearby paved areas (around Sam Hill warehouse, along the APS wall, even at Depot Marketplace by improving the safety of the crossing) and our park and Greenways Trail restored to their natural car-free splendor. Black hawks, coopers hawks, and other rare birds and animals who live in WGCP rely on us to protect their habitat.
Would you like to help? We'd so appreciate it. We need letters of support, old photos and documents from our natural WGCP, and eventually lots of hands to rebuild our park and trail. Please email our VP, Sue Knaup at sue{at}onestreet.org and let us know how you'd like to help. Thank you!
More Resources:
West Granite Creek Park Master Plan July 2000 - the most comprehensive document on protection of WGCP as a natural riparian park.
West Granite Creek Parking Lot design - the City of Prescott's current plan to permanently pave WGCP as of November 2023, 95% complete. Note the title of the document on the side of each page: "West Granite Creek Parking Lot"!
Granite Creek Corridor Master Plan 2020 - page 37 describes the parking plan and mistakenly assumes that Prescott Farmers Market will be moving to WGCP.
City of Prescott budget FY24 - "West Granite Creek Park Improvements" page 238 - misleading description of the design to pave it as a parking lot (see link above): "Improvements to West Granite Creek Park including a large pavilion and grass gathering area." Thankfully this item was removed for fiscal years FY24 and FY25 (underway now). The paved parking lot design is poised to be included in the FY26 budget, to be drafted at the end of 2024 likely with similar rosy wording, unless we permanently protect our natural park from this and future threats.
Hilton/City Development Agreement 1-31-19 - details the agreement between the City and the owner of the Hilton project; most of our concerns lie in the references to the "Park Area" that shows the entire WGCP area.
Daily Courier article 6-2-19 "$1 million slated to go toward city improvements to West Granite Creek Park" - City's early concept to pave WGCP for 90 farmers market stalls, parking, an access road, and a 2,000 square foot event center. Since, this has been cut to $500,000 for paved parking, though the paved farmers market stalls continue to be mentioned.
APS investment in WGCP - Newsletters: June 1999, January 2000, July 2000, Summer 2001 - details completion of cleanup and their investment in WGCP's car-free trails and riparian revegetation.
Our Coalition (so far):
Prescott Alternative Transportation (PAT) is part of a growing coalition of Prescott organizations, Dexter Neighborhood residents, concerned parents, and others working together to restore West Granite Creek Park, and the Greenways Trail through it, to its car-free natural splendor. So far our coalition includes: Dexter Neighborhood residents, Friends of Granite Creek Park, Parents for a Car-free West Granite Creek Park, Prescott Alternative Transportation, Prescott Audubon Society, and Prescott Creeks.
To add your organization to this list, please email Sue Knaup at sue{at}onestreet.org
Letters of Support:
- Dexter Neighborhood - reactions to paving plan
- Friends of Granite Creek Park
- Parents for a Car-free West Granite Creek Park - 74 parents signed on so far; (also a personal letter from one parent)
- Prescott Alternative Transportation
- Prescott Audubon Society
- Prescott Creeks
