MERIDIAN, Idaho — Idaho's fastest growing city has a plan. Feedback from citizens says they want more parks, and a pathway to get there.
Steve Siddoway, Meridians Parks and Recreation director explains. " Right now the city's priority is based on surveys of citizens and it's focused on transportation improvements. Roads need to catch up with growth, and these additional parks will follow. We anticipate them developing over the next ten years."
You can hear the excitement in Siddoway's voice when he talks about what's being planned. Siddoway says with Settler's Park in his rear view mirror, his focus is finishing Discovery Park on Lake Hazel south of the freeway. "That park will eventually triple in size when it's completed about twenty-eight acres of park space when it's all said and done. It'll be over seventy acres." With ball fields, the popular sand and water play, the climbing wall shaped like the state of Idaho and of course the zip lines, the park is extremely popular.
Next up is a park for the folks in west Meridian. Siddoway looks forward to breaking ground in that neck of the woods. "That's the second of three that I'm talking about right now. It doesn't have an official name yet, so we call it the west Meridan Regional Park. We have about forty-seven acres of land near Cherry Lane and McDermott in that area."
Now if we told you Meridian has plans for a park along the Boise river you would think my geography was a little off, well as Siddoway explains, it's not.
"We do have concept plans for Adalpe park by the river and that will also be a unique major park, it'll be more undeveloped use access to the river. Disc golf and those types of things, it'll be more of a natural park."
Siddoway says getting around town on a web of bikes paths is also the goal of the city. Right now they're just finishing up a parking area on Ten Mile road for access to a new path.
As Meridian grows, the parks will have to play catch up, so we all can play catch in the years to come.
