Kristi Maxwell and her husband bought their Apple Valley house, sight unseen, because of its proximity to parks where their 5- and 7-year-old kids could play. Then, voters approved a measure last fall that gave the city parks a $73.3 million funding boost, and she was excited to learn about potential improvements.

So she was frustrated to find out recently that, under a draft of the city's new park amenities plan, the playground at nearby Chaparral Park would be slated for removal.

"It just feels like a bait and switch," she said.

She and other residents have turned up at meetings in local parks in recent weeks to air their concerns about possible plans for spending the new money. City staff, who have hosted the meetings to gather feedback, say the draft plan was drawn up based on input collected before the referendum passed, what the city could afford and the variety of amenities its parks could offer.

The plan calls for improvements at 40 playgrounds across the park system. But it also suggests eliminating 14 of them. One city presentation noted that the south metro suburb has approximately one playground per 1,064 people, a higher concentration than neighboring cities like Eagan and Lakeville.

"We have so many of them that they're very close to each other, geographically speaking," said Eric Carlson, Apple Valley's parks and recreation director. "It just begged the question — do we want to try to do something different?"

The plan recommends replacing the playground structures with basketball courts, nature play areas and a canoe launch and fishing pier, though changes wouldn't happen for several years at some parks. At Chaparral and Nordic parks, for instance, plans call for community gardens instead of playgrounds. But residents have objected to that, saying the gardens aren't needed because many people have spacious yards.

Apple Valley parks and recreation staff are visiting every park to have meetings about the possible changes before creating an updated plan. Carlson said that so far, they've heard that people value the playgrounds they have and generally don't like the suggested changes.

"Apple Valley gets to be what Apple Valley wants to be," he said. "Our residents get to tell us how many playgrounds they want."

Which park amenities take priority?

Residents voted yes in a two-question referendum in November 2023. The first question asked for $66.8 million to improve parks, trails, and recreation facilities. The second, which was contingent on the first passing, asked voters to sign off on $6.5 million to redo Redwood Pool. Together they were estimated to add $257 to the average homeowner's property taxes annually.

About $16.8 million from the referendum is earmarked for neighborhood parks, meant to cover things like tennis and basketball courts, irrigation systems and lighting, in addition to playgrounds.

Gabrielle Grinde, a landscape architect with the firm HKGi, started working with the city on the draft parks amenity plan — trying to help narrow down the amenity options.

She said she completed a study of the parks, accounting for data points like population distribution and the number of kids under age 9. She also considered comments the city had solicited through a community outreach process before she was hired, including feedback about people wanting more community gardens, nature play areas and natural landscaping. She said those natural options have proven popular elsewhere.

Most Apple Valley playgrounds are at the end of their useful life, and replacing them is very expensive, she said, with a small playground now costing from $150,000 to $350,000.

"Over the last decade, playgrounds have become much more expensive ... and they're held to such high, rigid safety standards," she said.

Most city parks aren't ADA-compliant now because of their age, but the 40 parks where the plans call for reinvestment in playgrounds would be upgraded to meet ADA standards over time, Carlson said, adding: "That's good for everybody."

To many residents, that doesn't take the sting out of losing the jungle gyms, swings and slides.

Suzanne Scheuerlein, who has 4- and 6-year-old kids, said she regularly lets her kids play at various city parks.

She lives by Carrollwood Park, which wouldn't lose its playground. But her brother lives near Newell Park and her parents by Heritage Park; plans suggest taking out playgrounds at both.

"It's just sad," she said.

'Continue to be listening'

Landscape architect Grinde said she has seen people elsewhere balk at the loss of playgrounds, too. She anticipated some of those concerns as Apple Valley works through a "pretty typical" process, she said.

"I think [Apple Valley] residents are really in tune with what's going on ... maybe a bit more than other communities I've worked in," she said. "It keeps staff on their toes."

Paul Coufal grew up in the same neighborhood on Keller Lake where he now lives with his four children under age 14, who love nearby Keller Park and Redwood Park.

The city's plan calls for removing the Keller Park playground and adding canoe storage and a fishing pier instead. At Redwood Park, three existing playgrounds would be removed and replaced with one that is inclusive for people with disabilities.

He said residents didn't have these details when they approved the referendum.

"Our concern is, how much energy do I have to put into this to keep what we already have?" he said.

Carlson said the city will take feedback through Sept. 13. An updated plan will go online in October, and residents can weigh in on that, too. The city hopes to adopt a plan by year's end, with improvements starting in 2025 and taking four to six years to complete.

In the end, he said, there probably isn't enough money for all the amenities residents say they want, which keep getting more expensive with inflation. But he said the city "might have to reprioritize based on feedback."

"There's probably 10 different ways we could have done this, and hindsight is 20/20," Carlson said. "We continue to have an open mind, we continue to be listening."