A little-known abandoned park in eastern Birmingham will be the future home of disability-friendly trails for wheelchairs, according to a plan approved by the Birmingham City Council on Tuesday.
The city has allocated $1 million, including $750,000 from American Rescue Plant Act funds, to fund the park, which should be complete by 2026 at the latest, Council member Hunter Williams said. The other $250,000 in funding allocated Tuesday comes from the city’s general fund, he said.
“This isn’t going to be right away,” said Carlee Sanford, executive director of the Ruffner Mountain Nature Coalition.
The 6.5-acre park at the end of Dogwood Drive was known as South Roebuck Park or East Side Park and included a 100-foot-long, 4.5-foot-deep swimming pool that’s still visible, though it no longer holds water, since part of the wall is missing. The park opened in the 1950s and the swimming pool was built in 1963 as the Eastside Swim Club. It has been abandoned since 1995 and the property is now owned by Ruffner Mountain Nature Coalition.
“It’s an ideal location for a park,” Sanford said.
“I want it to go from something that is currently blighted and not used, to something that can be an asset for the neighborhood,” Williams said.
The redeveloped park will contain 10,000 feet of wheelchair accessible trails that would conform to requirements of the Americans with Disabilities Act.
The coalition has an overall fundraising goal of $1.5 million to build the park and private fundraising is underway, Sanford said.
The park backs up to a roadbed formerly used by the Birmingham Mineral Railroad. It’s not contiguous with Ruffner Mountain Park, which is separated by about 500 acres owned by Warrior Met Coal, Sanford said.
Ruffner Mountain Nature Center often gets inquiries about disability-friendly trails, but Ruffner Mountain doesn’t currently have such trails, Sanford said. The Ruffner Mountain trails feature steep terrain and a quarry that are not wheelchair-friendly.
“Ruffner Mountain brings in visitors from all over central Alabama,” Williams said. “Obviously with climbing up the side of a mountain, or climbing down the side of a mountain, it’s not ADA-accessible. This will give families that have an ADA need a place where they can go and enjoy Ruffner as well. It rounds out Ruffner and what they’re able to provide to the whole state of Alabama.”