Royer Park in Roseville getting a makeover

The Royer Park Play Area Expansion Project was approved at Wednesday's Roseville City Council meeting. Royer Park, located at 190 Park Drive in Roseville, is getting a makeover to be completed by May, according to Roseville's Park Planning & Development manager Tara Gee. "It's worn and needs ongoing maintenance," Gee said about the old play structure, "At this point, it's costly to keep it up because of constant repairs." To determine what residents wanted in the updated park, public outreach was done by asking children to submit coloring sheets of their dream parks. After putting multiple designs online for a vote, a design was picked that features ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act)-accessible ramps and rubber surfacing, which can be seen in its "leaf-like" design, Gee said. According to a city of Roseville article, "Reimagine the Royer Park playground," a treehouse design for the play structure was chosen. The article also notes that "sight lines into the treehouse" were added "to improve safety. We also added two swings to accommodate younger children and those with disabilities." The old playground is currently in the process of being torn down to make room for the new, expanded play structure. Gee said this is also an "opportunity to expand the picnic area and shade." Roseville City Council approved the Royer Park Expansion Project's budget adjustment of $305,952 and awarded a contract to Sitewise Construction, Inc. for the project. In other news Roseville City Council approved a budget adjustment for the Cash for Grass Program at Wednesday's meeting. The Cash for Grass Program is a rebate program that "incentivizes" customers to replace their non-functional turf in their front and back yards to save water, Water Conservation administrator Bobby Alvarez said at the meeting. "The good way to think of [non-functional turf] is that if the only time you step on it is to mow it, it's not functional," said Roseville City Manager Dominick Casey. "If you can use it for recreation," such as recreation and sports, "then it's functional turf." Roseville Councilmember Pauline Roccucci said she likes how the program gives residents "options" to change up their yards. According to the staff report, "customer requests have exhausted budgeted funding within the first two months of Fiscal Year 2022-23," therefore a $200,000 budget adjustment is needed. The program started in 2008 and since then has removed 2.5- million square feet of turf, the equivalent of 33 football fields, according to Alvarez. The Environmental Utilities Department has estimated water savings of 85-million gallons since the program's start. Roseville City Council approved the $200,000 budget adjustment for the Cash for Grass Program.