Jack N. Sheldon Park in South Sacramento has been awarded an $8.5 million grant from the California Statewide Park Program. The public park is one of eight locations to receive grant funds from the program.
This Florin neighborhood park is one of three Northern California locations to receive this funding. The Southgate Recreation and Park District was awarded the grant to revitalize and expand Jack N. Sheldon Park, creating new recreational opportunities in this underserved part of Sacramento.
While the construction is underway, the park will still be usable, with all renovations scheduled to be completed by March 2027. The expansion will add nearly nine acres of land, and the enlarged park will include a number of different offerings: from new trails and a dog park to a disc golf course and basketball court, ping pong tables, tennis and pickleball courts, exercise equipment stations, a playground and a soccer field. Enhancements will also include electric vehicle charging stations and an educational arboretum.
According to Vincent King, Southgate Parks and Recreation Department's planning manager, the goals of the proposed expansion are to improve the park and make it a community destination for outdoor recreation activities.
“We think there's a great need [for park improvements] in South Sacramento,” King said. “It's an incredibly diverse area, but also an area of need. So, bringing in more parks and improving the park facilities is one way we can hopefully address some of that historical underrepresentation.”
According to Sedrick Mitchell, deputy director of California State Parks, Southgate’s grant application faced a competitive process, with over 400 others across the state. According to the grant application, projects being proposed were required to be in a “severely disadvantaged or disadvantaged community.”
“It was about a nine month review process that we did when the round was active, and then we spent an additional two months seeing if the projects were viable and determining which projects we would make the awards for,” Mitchell said.
According to King, this grant was awarded because it sets out to address the needs of South Sacramento, a diverse part of the city, and an area characterized by inadequate park space and limited ways to interact with the outdoors. He highlighted the community engagement process undertaken by the district before the grant was submitted, which included advocacy, public meetings and canvassing at the park to gather user input.
The playground at Jack N. Sheldon Park in South Sacramento will undergo renovations as part of the park's improvement project, taken on Jan. 12, 2024.Tony Rodriguez/CapRadio
According to King, South Sacramento needs more shade, noting that some areas have 40-50% tree coverage, while in others, tree canopy plummets.
“When you go down to South Sacramento, it does become a bit more of an urban concrete landscape where you see tree coverage as low as 10%,” King said. “So that's one of the things that our grant project is trying to do, is create more trees.”
He said this lack of tree coverage contributes to the area’s underserved status. The planned arboretum aims not only to showcase a variety of kinds of trees, but also to serve as a way to improve the area's tree canopy.
Since its inception, this grant program has provided $1.2 billion for park and recreational projects throughout California. Mitchell said the program received $2.4 billion in grant requests in this funding round.
The State Parks grant program, established in 2008, was initially funded by Prop. 84 and continues to receive support from Prop. 68. Despite budgetary constraints, the program announced it would allocate $41.9 million to fulfill eight previously unfunded projects.
Jack N. Sheldon Park is the home court for the Sacramento Tennis Association’s Southgate Tennis Club, a hub for tennis enthusiasts. Robert Jenkins, the club’s president, says he and the members are excited about the upgrades coming to the courts.
Due to their deteriorating condition, the club has faced challenges in hosting tournaments. While the courts were not unplayable, the United States Tennis Association no longer allows match play at the park.
“I play out there four times a week and get used to it. I'm not going to say I'm proud of the cracks [that the tennis courts had], but it’s a bummer when a shot hits a crack and takes a funny bounce,” Jenkins said.
Jenkins said he remains optimistic about the club's development following all the upgrades, hoping to attract more members, and that, eventually, match play will resume, which could possibly bring back USTA events.
“We don't have a problem playing somewhere else [in the meantime],” he said. “We're playing all of our league matches away because…we're really looking forward to [completion] of this project.”
King explained that while the grant money has been secured, several steps remain before the expansion is complete. These include finalizing agreements with State Park partners, navigating the design and engineering processes and completing construction.
“For soccer, for softball across the street, [and] for tennis, this park has much to offer,” Jenkins said. “With it being redone, especially with the [addition of a] nature trail…I’d like to think this location would become the crown jewel of the park district.”
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