Oak Trails Park on NW 74th Street is about to grow from 5 acres to nearly 15. The plan adds no lights, no competitive ball fields and no courts. The extra 10 acres go to a half-mile trail, open lawn, native plantings and a Nature Center built inside a renovated house. That design was a choice, and residents had a hand in it. The active recreation people asked for at the same public meetings is now showing up across the city on Sol Press Boulevard.
The design isn't the only open question. The contract to build it passed in May, and the construction clock still hasn't publicly started.
What Five Acres Looks Like Today
The existing park sits at 4230 NW 74 Street in the northern part of the city. It is open from 8:30 a.m. to sunset and has a quarter-mile jog and walk path, a nature preserve, a picnic area, a dog walk and fitness equipment. The city dedicated it on March 4, 2015, and calls it Coconut Creek's newest park.
It has been built up slowly. Coconut Creek News traced the timeline. Broward County bought the original five-acre parcel in 2007 and deeded it to the city for a passive park. A recycled rubber walking path went in in 2013, and a pervious concrete parking lot followed in 2014. The city then bought the two five-acre parcels on either side, one in 2017 and one in 2018. In January 2025 the commission rezoned those parcels, 4100 and 4250 NW 74th Street, from agricultural to recreation.
So the land has belonged to the city for most of a decade. Deciding what to put on it took longer.
The Meeting Where Residents Set the Limits
On March 12, 2024, the city's design team showed residents a concept plan at a public meeting. According to the meeting minutes, residents raised concerns about safety, fencing, how the renovated building would be used, how the walking paths would connect, the need for a dog park, and the idea of building sports fields. The minutes also record a "live discussion." Attendees wrote their own ideas on a poster, and that list is a useful way to check the plan the city approved.
| Amenity residents suggested in March 2024 | Where it stands in the approved plan |
|---|---|
| Community meeting space | Nature Center with public classroom space and covered assembly areas |
| Wide walking path | Half-mile sidewalk and multi-use trail |
| Solar panels on the building | Solar charging station, with the building seeking LEED certification |
| Covered pavilion with seating | Pavilions available for community events |
| Soccer fields | Two multipurpose fields for passive use. City staff said fields for competitive athletics could be added later |
| Dog parks | Not in the concept program. The existing dog walk remains |
| Pickleball | Not at Oak Trails. Now being pursued near the Recreation Complex |
| Playground, basketball hoop, lighting on 74th Street | Not in the concept program |
The table follows a pattern: low-impact requests like paths, shade and meeting space made it into the plan, while courts, lights and play equipment did not. Coconut Creek Talk reported in May 2024 that residents had expressed a preference for a passive park with minimal development. When the commission approved the site plan in January 2025, Commissioner Joshua Rydell cited strong community support for an expanded passive park, Coconut Creek Talk reported.
Ten Acres, Mostly Left Alone
A state grant also limits what can go on the new land. In 2025 the Florida Communities Trust reimbursed the city $1,135,649.10 for part of what it paid for the two parcels. In return, the city has to deliver a specific list.
- A Nature Center in the existing house on the property, with LEED certification sought for the building
- Trails
- Multi-use fields
- Picnic areas
- Outdoor exercise equipment
- One acre of new native plantings
The approved concept goes into more detail. It adds a restroom, a chilled-water fountain, an interpretive kiosk and a pollinator garden. The exercise stations already have names on the plan sheets: "Door Knob," "Lava Leap Jam," "Over Under" and "Mighty Might." The Nature Center layout includes a public classroom, covered outdoor and assembly areas, restrooms and an office.
Parking shows the scale the city has in mind. The staff report lists 29 paved spaces and 66 overflow spaces on grass across the whole park. Most of the time, that is enough for a neighborhood park. The grass overflow suggests the city expects occasional crowds for events at the Nature Center and pavilions, which Coconut Creek Talk reported will be available for community events.
The half-mile trail matters most for anyone already walking laps here. The current loop is a quarter mile, so the new trail doubles the distance of a single lap.
Why December 2025 Came and Went
At the March 2024 meeting, the project team estimated that design, permitting and construction would be finished by December 2025. The real sequence ran more than a year behind that estimate.
- January 23, 2025. The City Commission approved the site plan.
- March 15, 2026. The city issued an Invitation for Bids for a general contractor. It sent 495 electronic invitations and received 11 responsive bids.
- Spring 2026. Sagaris Corporation submitted the lowest responsive bid at $2,890,000. The next lowest was $3,324,430.48, a gap of $434,430.48.
- May 28, 2026. The commission passed RES 2026-078, approving the Sagaris agreement with a cap of $3,179,000. That figure includes a 10 percent contingency.
The contract gives a schedule but no calendar dates. Substantial completion is due 335 days after the city issues a notice to proceed, and final completion 30 days after that. At the time of the award, Coconut Creek News wrote that residents would get a clearer timeline once that notice was issued. Nearly five months later, no notice to proceed or groundbreaking has been publicly announced.
You can work out the earliest likely date. A notice issued in the last week of October would put substantial completion in late September 2027, with final completion 30 days after that. Every week the notice waits pushes that date back by a week.
Where the Pickleball Went
Pickleball was on the March 2024 poster at Oak Trails. On October 8, 2026, it came up again at a different site. City Manager Sheila Rose told the commission she and senior staff had met with members of the Broward County School Board. The topic was putting new volleyball and pickleball courts on the old tennis courts between the Coconut Creek Recreation Complex at 4455 Sol Press Boulevard and Lyons Creek Middle School at 4333 Sol Press Boulevard, Coconut Creek Talk reported.
The commission gave Rose consensus to move forward and to set up a working group. That group will meet with the school board about an amended joint use agreement. The commission has not set a budget or a funding arrangement for building and maintaining the courts.
Neither city record links the two projects. Still, they divide the work cleanly. Oak Trails stays a place for walking, picnics and nature. Courts, and the noise and evening traffic that come with them, would go to an existing recreation hub that already has those uses nearby.
Before You Head Over
The city's Oak Trails page currently shows a notice that the park is temporarily closed for pathway repairs, with work expected to finish "by approximately mid-August." The notice gives no year. Before a morning walk, call the city at 954-545-6600 to confirm the path is open. The same number is the most direct way to ask whether the expansion's notice to proceed has gone out.
For the streets along NW 74th, the finished plan means a longer walking loop, a classroom building and a pollinator garden, with no lights or league fields to bring evening traffic. If you live near NW 74th Street and want to talk through how projects like this affect the homes around them, The Schirripa Group follows Coconut Creek's capital projects closely and is glad to share what we know. Contact Us.
