After three years of construction and renovation, the playground at Pioneer Park in the City of San Fernando was officially reopened on Saturday, Feb. 8, with new sun shading and play equipment.
The work on the playground was completed about a month ago, with equipment and structures for children ages 2 to 5 years old and kids ages 5 and up. There are swings, slides and three medium-sized xylophones that kids can hit with a mallet to create sounds.
The area also now includes sun shade sails and with additional padding to protect kids if they fall, as well as fitness equipment for older kids and adults.
City of San Fernando officials including Mayor Mendoza, Councilmembers Victoria Garcia and Patty Lopez, City Manager Nick Kimball and Julio Salcedo, director of Recreation and Community Services attended the grand reopening.
In 2018, the playground was identified for much-needed improvements in the Parks and Recreation Master Plan and was funded through two sources: the Los Angeles County Safe, Clean Neighborhood Parks and Beaches Measure, and Proposition 68.
Planning began in 2022, and three community engagement meetings were held, starting in September 2023, to gain feedback. The project was delayed due to supply chain issues with the needed materials, but the City Council gave approval to the contractor in June 2024 to begin construction.
“We all know the benefits that a playground brings, whether they’re physical [or] social,” said Salcedo. “But it’s also a place where we create community, and it is a pleasure to open another space in our city [to] welcome that type of opportunity in our city where we’re going to create those memories, those places for everyone in our community.”
Kimball said they faced some challenges in getting the project going. He said that getting funding from Prop 68 was “competitive” and the city has only received it two other times: one for Layne Park, which was remodeled in the past two years, and the other for Las Palmas Park, which has been identified as the city’s next project.
Final designs still need to be approved by the City Council. By this time next year, Kimball said, work at Las Palmas Park is expected to be underway.
“It’s exciting to see all these new opportunities for kids to play,” Kimball said.
With the playground reopened families who live nearby no longer have to travel to other parks outside of their neighborhood. Irene Garcia and her family are within walking distance of Pioneer Park, but during the construction, they had been going to El Cariso Community Regional Park in Sylmar.
Her family had been checking on the progress at Pioneer Park for some time to see if the construction of the playground was finished. When it was, she said they were so excited and happy to see how it now looked. Her son calls it the “green park,” referring to the green paint on much of the equipment.
“It’s a lot better than the state it was in before,” Irene Garcia said. “The foam was falling apart, pieces were tossed on the [nearby] roofs and kids were getting their knees scraped. It’s more upgraded now.”
Tony Ruiz also lives within walking distance of the park and has been coming to the area for years – even taking his kids to play baseball there. Before the recent renovations, however, he said that the playground looked all torn up and it didn’t even have swings. But once the construction was completed, he wasted no time in bringing his family back to the park.
“I brought my granddaughter here as soon as it was finished,” Ruiz said. “They did a really good job. I just hope it doesn’t get vandalized.”
