The Southeast of Dallas had just received a 110 acre land containing Parkdale Lake from Oncor for a promising development and improvement park project and the city officials are very excited and thankful according to a Dallas Morning News article from December 17 which reports, 

 

“Dallas has been entrusted with 110 acres of pristine, wooded property — a piece of our past suspended in time for more than a half century as a big urban city grew up around it.

 

“This is a once-in-a-lifetime transformational project that is going to change so many communities in this city,” Dallas Park and Recreation director John Jenkins said as he and park board president Arun Agarwal gave me the first look at just-produced conceptual illustrations for the new park.

 

“It can be a bridge that connects between south and north and east,” Agarwal added.

 

Agarwal envisions the rain-fed 30-acre Parkdale Lake, the island that sits within it and the encircling levee as the centerpiece of a park with boardwalks, trails and opportunities for picnicking, fishing, bird-watching and canoeing.

 

Community members will take the lead when master-planning begins, but Agarwal was so eager to get this project moving that he personally underwrote the cost for preliminary concepts to help visualize the greenspace’s potential.”

 

The unbelievable donation is very crucial and timely as it can be developed into more than just a park but also as bridge to surrounding areas and natural barrier for floods and the like according to an Axios Dallas article from November 30 which observes, 

 

“This will be the largest donation of parkland in Dallas since 1938, when the city acquired more than 600 acres from the W.W. Samuell Estate, according to city officials.

 

The new park will help complete the LOOP, the 50-mile walk-and-bike trail aimed at connecting northern, southern, eastern and western Dallas.

 

Parkdale Lake will also help the city manage runoff and mitigate flooding from White Rock Creek.

 

A third-party environmental assessment found no evidence of contamination on the land, and the Parkdale Lake Dam is a “low-risk dam” in fair condition.”

 

Plans for the development of the donated land are ongoing and officials have set their eyes on 2023 for its opening.