Archive
Unique Accessible Park Opens Soon
06.09.2006
Feliz Paseos, the first park in Arizona designed in its entirety and in advance to be accessible to people with limited physical abilities, will open in late June or early July. It is reached from North Camino de Oeste, one-fourth mile north of West Speedway.
The 50-acre Pima County park has a one-fourth mile asphalt trail and 1¼ miles of improved dirt trails that can be used by people in wheelchairs and by people with various physical limitations. The trails will have signs listing the elevation grades, cross slopes, widths and other conditions relevant to users with disabilities, so each user can decide what parts of the trails to tackle and what parts to avoid. No trail will have a grade steeper than a 6 percent rise. Feliz Paseos will have one large ramada and three small ramadas and an overlook over the Camino de Oeste Wash. It will have parking space for buses, a dozen disabled spaces and a dozen spaces for able-bodied users.
The park was the brainchild of neighbor Laural Park, who proposed its construction in the late 1990s. Pima County purchased the land for it in 1998. The park is being developed with $850,000 in bond funds from the 2004 bond package.
Former District Five Supervisor Raúl Grijalva, now a Congressman, pushed to create Feliz Paseos with the help of a planning committee of interested and affected citizens. Park and disabled hiker and accessibility advocate Bob Mora co-chaired the committee. Park, Mora and Robie Pardee of the Pima County Natural Resources Parks and Recreation Department were trained and certified in the Universal Trails Assessment Process and used their new skills and sophisticated equipment to map out the trails and collect the sign information.
A grand opening celebration for Feliz Paseos is scheduled for September. Watch this webpage for the exact date, time and details of this public event.
View Feliz Paseos Map click here ››
View Feliz Paseos Site Plan (LARGE PDF FILE - Broadband) click here »
View Feliz Paseos Work in progress photos click here ››
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