Boulder parks board approves Boulder Creek Park name; courts, East Bookend still in flux

The Boulder Parks and Recreation Advisory Board voted unanimously June 22 to rename the Civic Area as Boulder Creek Park, according to the board meeting record.

Staff told the board they were "tentatively planning" a naming celebration for the afternoon of July 23, according to the same record. But a later update reviewed for this story on the city's Civic Area Phase 2 project page did not confirm or cancel that date.

The board's action came as members also heard opposition to a proposed tennis and pickleball courts project near South Boulder Creek wetlands. Commenters described the site as ecologically sensitive, flood-prone and culturally significant, and urged the city to move the courts or consider a botanic garden instead, according to the meeting record and video.

Staff said the project was still moving ahead. According to the meeting record and video, staff said ecological and hydrologic studies had been completed, a community-led botanic garden proposal could still be evaluated, and there was "no halt" to the courts process as it moved through design and later review. A board member similarly said the project was already moving forward in the design phase, according to the same source.

No later city record reviewed for this story showed the wetlands courts proposal had been paused or redesigned because of that pushback. An April 27 PRAB packet said funding had been identified to resurface courts in 2026.

Staff also told the board the city's East Bookend public-private partnership effort had received about nine responses to an informal request-for-information process and was expected to lead to a formal request for proposals in late summer, according to the June 22 record.

But the reporting record reviewed for this story does not show that a formal East Bookend RFP had been issued as of that meeting. City project and interest pages also described an RFP as a future step.