In March, City Park gave a clear timeline for the side of the park nearest Lakeview. NOLA.com reported that design work would wrap up in the summer, the public would be asked about field size, uses and lighting, and the park hoped to break ground by the end of 2026. Since then there has been no news conference and no ribbon cutting. Updates have come out as solicitations for contractors, posted in June to the park's website. They show a later schedule, open questions about the basics, and no confirmed groundbreaking. This fall, the area between Harrison Avenue and Zachary Taylor Drive is still the park as it has long been, and the plans are still in the design stage.
What Was Said in March, and What the June Papers Say
The plan is called City Park 2050. The City Park Improvement Association and City Park Conservancy boards approved it in August 2025 to guide spending across the park's 1,300 acres over 25 years. In a Fox 8 report this March, park leaders said the last major renovation came after Hurricane Katrina and focused on the south side. This plan targets the north.
| Item | March 2026 statement | June 2026 documents |
|---|---|---|
| Design completion | Expected to wrap in the summer | 100% schematic design scheduled for "Fall 2026" |
| Public input | Feedback planned on field size, usage and lighting | No 2026 survey or meeting posted; the park's Community Input page lists materials through June 2025 |
| Field surface | Not discussed | Turf or grass still undecided, per a June addendum |
| Groundbreaking | Hoped for by end of 2026 | No date published; contractor selection was still in progress |
The key document is a request for qualifications issued June 1, 2026. It seeks a construction manager at risk for what the park calls "City Park Athletics and Connections Improvements." It says the final project elements will be set only after schematic design and cost estimating are finished. An addendum also said restrooms, concessions or play structures might be added to the scope. The scope was still open in June.
The park expected to announce its pick in the last week of July. As of today, no award has been published. That doesn't mean the project stalled. The park's board-minutes archive currently stops at June, so later decisions may have been made without being posted. Either way, nothing in the public record yet supports the March hope of a groundbreaking before year's end.
The Path Along Zachary Taylor Drive
The most concrete item for Lakeview is a separate June 16 solicitation. It seeks design and engineering firms for two projects funded through the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development's Transportation Alternatives Program. One is a 14-foot shared walking and biking path on Zachary Taylor Drive, running from Henry Thomas Drive to Pan American Stadium, with lighting and a bus drop-off. The other is new sidewalk along Palm Drive to the Old Maintenance Corral.
Submissions were due July 15, and a selection was expected the week of July 27. In the question-and-answer document, one bidder said it understood a survey contract for Zachary Taylor Drive had already been let. The Conservancy said it would hire a surveyor for Palm Drive separately. So the path has funding and a defined route, and it is earlier in the process than the athletics work. The park is still hiring the firm that will design it.
What Is Already Finished on the North Side
Some north-side work is already done or close. In March, CEO Rebecca Dietz said new lighting was in at Pan American Stadium and construction was about to start on new locker rooms, concessions and bathrooms. December 2025 board minutes say an anonymous donor is funding the Quadraplex renovation and the field next to it, though the minutes give no dollar figure. At its April 28 meeting, the City Park Improvement Association heard that design was focused on the Quad and the area behind Tad Gormley, with several versions under review.
The larger ideas reach further out. Fox 8 reported that the long-term vision covers up to 900 acres of underdeveloped land on the north side. It includes trails linking more than 150 acres of native Louisiana landscape, a treehouse, a boathouse, new sport courts, and a reimagined Wisner Tract, the former golf course off Harrison Avenue. Dietz also described the park's approach.
"People have lifelong memories here and it is our job to preserve them, not to erase them or change them."
Just south of the I-610 underpass, on the park's south side, the S. Barton Stewart III Center will reuse the historic maintenance corral. It is meant to improve connections between the park's two halves and is expected to be finished in fall 2027. Of all the projects meant to connect the park to its north side, that is the only one with a published completion date, and it is a year away.
The North Side As It Is This Fall
With design still underway, the paths and woods near Lakeview are open in their current form. The park's grounds are free and open daily from sunrise to sunset. Here is the current layout, measured from the park's own trail listings:
- Couturie Forest. A one-mile mulch loop through 26 acres of passive urban forest with Laborde Mountain, the city's highest point at 27 feet. The park's February update lists Louisiana iris planting here with the Greater New Orleans Iris Society and the Louisiana Iris Conservation Initiative as current work.
- Scout Island. A 0.66-mile mulch loop, reached by a pedestrian bridge near Magnolia Drive and ending by the east side of the soccer fields. Restoration work with Limitless Vistas, Inc. is listed as current.
- Festival Grounds. 50 acres with lighted fields, circled by a one-mile paved path with separate lanes for walkers and cyclists.
- Big Lake. The 0.75-mile Zemurray trail, a native-plant trail on the north shore, and Wheel Fun rentals of bikes, surreys, swan boats and kayaks from 10 a.m. to sunset, with the last rental an hour before sunset.
- NOLA City Bark. A 4.6-acre off-leash park at 10 Magnolia Drive, open by permit only. It opens at 5:30 a.m. every day except Tuesday, when it opens at 3 p.m.
- Bayou Oaks. The North Course of the 36-hole public complex is at 1051 Filmore Avenue.
The Fall Calendar on This Side of the Park
The next six weeks are busy on the north side. Because none of the projects above has a groundbreaking date, these events should happen around the park's current layout.
- October 2: a Big Lake volunteer session doing trail upkeep, including weeding, clearing debris, mulching and shoveling.
- October 24: the Corporate Classic 5K. Its 3.1-mile course runs past the Festival Grounds and finishes on the City Park Practice Track, followed by a tent village, a live band, and food.
- November 5, 6 and 7: local-team games at Pan American Stadium, the facility whose locker rooms, concessions and bathrooms are part of the current renovation.
- November 7: Beignet Fest at the Festival Grounds, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. The same morning, the Lakeview Civic Improvement Association's Veterans Day Parade runs on Harrison Avenue from 11 a.m. to noon.
On November 7, the parade on Harrison Avenue and the festival at the Festival Grounds overlap from 11 a.m. to noon. Both are close to the Wisner Tract, the former golf course off Harrison that the park now calls one of its biggest long-term projects.
What to Watch for Next
The next public milestones are known even though their dates are not. The construction manager award and the design firm selection for the Zachary Taylor path were both expected in late July and haven't been published yet. The fall 2026 target for full schematic design is still ahead. Then there is the public input on field size, uses and lighting that Dietz promised in March. The park's board minutes, the City Park 2050 progress page, and the Lakeview Civic Improvement Association calendar are the places to check for those announcements.
If you'd like to talk through how these park plans and their timing could affect the blocks along Harrison Avenue and Zachary Taylor Drive, I'm glad to compare notes as the next documents come out. Kara Lashley · Let's Connect.
