Years in development, an updated master plan for Falls Park now is scheduled to be approved early next year.
The process began in 2021 and represents the first new master plan for the area since 1992. The Sioux Falls Parks & Recreation Department held a design competition to develop comprehensive ideas to address the future of the area. Confluence, a landscape architecture, planning and urban design firm, was awarded the design contract.
Goals included:
- Create a year-round destination.
- Preserve and enhance the heart of the park.
- Improve circulation and safety.
- Expand recreational opportunities.
- Embrace full-season programming.
- Seek out partnership opportunities.
- Improve water quality, and incorporate environmentally friendly designs.
- Preserve historical elements, and develop only in appropriate areas.
The broad vision is to create a signature destination park, said Jon Jacobson, senior principal at Confluence.
Those kinds of parks typically are actively programmed, he said…