Serious upgrades coming to Lake Stevens’ Frontier Heights Park

LAKE STEVENS — Pickleball, a turf field and a “sensory garden” are coming to a park near you.

Lake Stevens is hoping to make Frontier Heights Park — a former homeowners association park in need of serious TLC — one of its crown jewels.

It’s the largest park in the northwest corner of the city and serves multiple neighborhoods, said Russ Wright, community development director.

The design process is underway for the second phase of improvements to the 7.1-acre park. The City Council approved a $153,065 contract with LDC engineering this month. Construction is slated to begin next spring, and the city has applied for funding through the state Recreation and Conservation Office.

It has been a work in progress, said Jim Haugen, secretary for the Lake Stevens Arts and Parks Foundation.

The city acquired the park back in 2017, when Haugen was serving as the city’s parks director.

Then the nearby neighborhood association transferred the park to the city. Association leaders said dues from members could no longer cover the cost of maintaining the park. All but 20 of the 212 neighbors voted in favor of transferring the park to the city.

The park, built in the late ’60s, sits beneath three companies’ power lines. It couldn’t be used for any development, but it’s a great spot for a public gathering space, Haugen said. And it could eventually connect to the city and Marysville’s trail system.

In 2020, the city replaced the old playground, and added a new paved trail, basketball court and picnic shelters.

Wading through fields of dry grass and weeds on Friday, Haugen described how the neighborhood’s vision for Frontier Heights has slowly come to fruition.

What historically was a soggy baseball diamond could soon be a turf field for soccer and baseball. It would be one of the few public fields in the city serving hundreds of young athletes, Wright said.

Visitors may soon be able to meander through a fragrant, vibrant “sensory garden” or a winding labyrinth, instead of the weeds.

And the park will get four pickleball courts.

Lake Stevens is hosting its first pickleball tournament at the high school later this month. It’s a growing sport that has generated a lot of interest in the city, Wright said.

Frontier Heights Park could offer practice space or become home to the annual tournament.

This year, state Sen. John Lovick, D-Mill Creek, helped make the paddle game Washington’s state sport. He “loves” that Lake Stevens is making it a part of the community, too.

“Everywhere I go where they’re playing a pickleball game, people are energized,” Lovick said. “… Everybody can play it. And you know, what I love the most about it is, whether you win or whether you lose, you still walk away with a smile on your face.”

Every community needs a gathering space, Haugen said. Especially in Lake Stevens, where the city is running out of land.

If you head to North Cove Park on any warm summer day, it’s packed.

Lake Stevens has about 171 acres of parks.

“It’s hard trying to find a big chunk of land these days that some developer hasn’t jumped all over,” Haugen said, of Lake Stevens. “People have got to go somewhere. We only have so much space. We gotta take care of what we have.”

Isabella Breda: 425-339-3192; isabella.breda@heraldnet.com; Twitter: @BredaIsabella.