Master Plan

Water Works Park is a 1,500-acre urban park—one of the largest in the nation—and a critical source of clean drinking water for 500,000 Central Iowans.

A Master Plan was launched in 2013 to create a road map for the future of Water Works Park. The plan aims to develop and grow a park that celebrates clean water by conserving land, enhancing the park’s innovative natural water filtration system, and offering more recreational and educational opportunities.

With easier access to the outdoors and environmental education, Water Works Park can help transform how our community thinks about and acts to protect water.

Although many of us know Water Works Park as an urban oasis, the park’s primary mission is to serve as the first water source for Central Iowans.

Master Plan

The Master Plan for Water Works Park will introduce visitors to the park’s many assets through better wayfinding, support systems such as parking, bathrooms, and food trucks, and safe connections to Gray’s Lake Park and the many regional trail systems.

Listening to the input provided by our community and enlisting volunteers to assist our efforts helped us form the Master Plan.

Big Splash

This project phase connects Water Works Park to Gray’s Lake Park and welcomes visitors.

Improvements include an amphitheater, natural play areas, and public art. Trails, vendor space, lighting, and public safety improvements are also included to make the park more accessible.

Clean Water

Development of the circuit includes deepening basins and creating chutes to increase the park’s surface water. Shoreline restoration and other landscape work support the park’s essential function as a water filtration system.

Plans also include improved access to fishing, the development of paddling opportunities, and additional educational displays, signage, and safety mechanisms.

River Constellation includes memorial names on rings; more rings are available to purchase.

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