Puyallup’s most-used playground to get $1M renovation with a new swing zone
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Puyallup plans ~$1M redesign; hopes to start construction fall 2027.
- City will replace pieces over 20 years old and add an accessible swing zone.
- Officials hope an RCO grant will cover $500K and seek public feedback.
Puyallup’s most-used playground is getting a fresh start.
Bradley Lake Park – located at 531 31st Ave. SE – is getting a new design and lots of new equipment, 22 years after the city first built the playground in 2004.
Cody Geddes, the city’s Parks and Recreation director, told The News Tribune that it’s Puyallup’s most-used playground, with 38,000 visits in 2025.
“As we get close to that 20-year mark, we look at replacements [for all our playgrounds] based on the age of a playground and usage. Some playgrounds go beyond 25 years – but Bradley Lake has received a lot of love throughout the years,” Geddes said.
All pieces of equipment over 20 years old will be replaced, Geddes said, and the city will implement a new design.
Eric Johnson, the city’s spokesperson, told The News Tribune the new playground will cost about $1 million, but the city will apply for a grant through the state’s Recreation and Conservation Office that they hope will cover $500,000 of it.
“The City of Puyallup does a good job getting grants, whether it’s through RCO or our state’s capital budget and really leveraging our local dollars, because, like, playground equipment is expensive,” Johnson said. “To the public, they’re like, ‘Why does it cost so much?’ It just is. Our parks department does a great job of leveraging our local capital budget with funding that’s available from the state so we can get the most bang for our buck for the public.”
Geddes and Johnson said the playground is in the design phase, and they hope to start construction in the fall of 2027. Construction would last about two months.
“It’s just a process, two years is going to go by quick,” Geddes said. “Be patient, hang with us, we definitely want to make this a great space for families and parents in our community.”
What new changes are coming?
One of the biggest changes to the new design, Geddes said, will involve removing the swings from the main play area and creating a new swing zone.
“One thing we’ve gotten feedback on from the community is we don’t have enough swings up there,” Geddes said. “We created one of the play areas, a swing zone, with accessible swings, saucer swing, combined tandem swing and a couple toddler swings and your standard swings as well. Creating this new swing zone takes (equipment) out of that conflict area, where kids are running through the swing area.”
A friendship swing currently outside the park’s play area will remain, Geddes said.
Some other features coming to the Bradley Lake playground include:
- Slides
- An accessible merry-go-round
- Musical games
- A spinmax pod, which Geddes described as “a small pod where kids can have more of a quiet space but be active in the area.”
Geddes said the city made inclusivity a focus when coming up with new designs. For instance, the new design incorporates sensory ramps, making parts of the playground accessible to children of all abilities.
“The 2004 original build, that was the first playground that Bradley Lake has ever had, so it’s been there a long time, and at the time, it was really, kind of on the cutting edge of inclusive playground equipment,” Geddes said. “We wanted to keep this as an inclusive play space.”
What are the city’s next steps?
Geddes said it will be a while before the updated playground becomes a reality, but they’re hoping to hear from the public about these new design concepts.
“We’re going through the community engagement process now, getting feedback on it, that’s really important for scoring for these grants,” Geddes said.
The city will submit its grant application to the state in April, Geddes said, and find out if they received the grant in September.
“The Recreation and Conservation Office Board will finalize project rankings and funding recommendations in September 2026 and submit them to the State Legislature for consideration in the 2027–2029 Capital Budget,” Geddes wrote in a follow-up email to The News Tribune. “The Legislature typically adopts the Capital Budget by April–May 2027. If the project is included and funded, RCO will begin issuing grant agreements shortly thereafter.”
This timeline would allow construction to start in the fall, Geddes said.
“The final version might look a little bit different but really [we want] to just gauge community feedback early on, just to make sure that we got this right before we go into final design and then eventually construction,” Johnson said. “We’re still quite a ways out before this goes to construction, but we’re very excited by the excitement that the public is giving us this early.”
Residents can visit a drop-in open house about the project on Wednesday, March 25 from 4 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. at Bradley Lake Park. The city also has a survey available.
To take the survey or see more visuals for the project, visit www.puyallupwa.gov/2503/Bradley-Lake-Park.
