Community park coming to West Plains

CHENEY – The West Plains Community Park is coming to Cheney, and the construction is expected to take place in 2024-2025.

The park plan was put into motion when Spokane County Parks, Recreation and Golf received six million dollars in funding from the American Rescue Plan Act in November 2022.

The money will be used for the land acquisition, planning, design, permitting and development of the site.

The county has already acquired a 10-acre parcel of land in March of this year. The county paid $532,000 for land acquisition. The park will be located at 9817 W. Melville Rd. in Cheney.

Julie Neff with Spokane County Parks, Recreation and Golf is the manager of this project, and said there was a need for a park in the area.

“There are a lot of people moving out to the area,” Neff said. “The location will be able to serve the communities of the West Plains, but we really need a park to serve the new growth as well.”

From this point, the county will have existing structures demolished and removed in August and September 2023.

The planning and design of the park will be running August through November 2023 with construction starting in 2024.

According to Neff, the county will be holding three open house events.

The first was from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. August 1 at the Inland Power and Light Company Training Room in Spokane.

“The open house forums are meant to bring community input directly into the conversation,” Neff said. “This will allow residents to share ideas about the park as well.”

The park is expected to have some traditional park features like playgrounds, sports fields, irrigated turf and picnic facilities. There will not be an aquatic facility built into this park.

“We are very early in the planning stages,” Neff said. “That’s why we want to get the residents out here to tell us what they want to see implemented into the park.”

Author Bio

Matthew Stephens, Reporter

Matthew graduated from West Virginia University-Parkersburg in 2011 with a journalism degree. He's an award-winning photographer and enjoys writing stories about people.