Columbus Breaks Ground on Greenleaf Park, a McCoy Park Replacement

Columbus broke ground on November 5, 2026, on Greenleaf Park, an 8.99-acre neighborhood park on the city's southwest side that is part of a $35 million plan to replace recreation amenities displaced when McCoy Park was committed to a professional women's soccer training facility.

The first replacement park to break ground

The public radio station WOSU reported that city officials broke ground on Greenleaf Park on November 5, 2026, one of the first sites in the plan to start construction. Columbus Recreation and Parks lists Greenleaf Park as an 8.99-acre parkland reserve at 1615 Brown Road in the 43223 ZIP code, land the department bought in 2023 but had not yet developed. WOSU reported that the park is designed to hold an accessible playground, sports fields and courts, a walking path, an open-air shelter and a parking lot.

Why McCoy Park needed a replacement plan

The plan grew out of a city working group formed after Columbus committed part of McCoy Park, on the near-south side, to a training facility for the city's incoming National Women's Soccer League team. CREN reported in October that the city finalized the McCoy Park rezoning for that facility, which displaced recreation amenities — including spaces built for people with disabilities — that the city had promised neighbors.

What the $35 million plan promises

In a June 29, 2026 announcement, the city said the working group's plan would spread the money across three sites: continued community and therapeutic recreation at McCoy Park, the new neighborhood park at Greenleaf, and an adaptive recreation field at Berliner Sports Park, for an estimated $35 million. The city estimated the three-site approach would serve nearly 50,000 residents within a two-mile drive, up from the 16,566 the earlier $20 million McCoy-only plan would have reached. Columbus Navigator reported that the new community park planned for McCoy would cover about 7.5 acres and that the Berliner adaptive field is projected to open in early 2029.

The timeline from here

The city had said in June that groundbreaking on the plan's first phase was anticipated in 2026. The November 5 groundbreaking at Greenleaf puts that first phase into motion. WOSU reported that the park's design should be finalized by early 2027, with construction finished by the end of 2027.

What neighbors say is still missing

WOSU reported that some southwest Columbus residents remain unhappy with the switch from McCoy Park and say Greenleaf is not accessible for everyone. The city's public materials describe three sites and a single $35 million total but do not break the spending down by site or detail the accessibility features promised at each one. Kym Douglas, director of the city's Department of Neighborhoods, told WOSU the city plans to engage the community because residents know their needs best. CREN could not independently reach the residents whose concerns WOSU described, and the city's own figures for how many people the plan would serve range from 40,000 in the mayor's remarks to nearly 50,000 in the written announcement.

What comes next

The next checkpoints are the city's final design for Greenleaf and the start of visible construction at the site. At McCoy Park and Berliner Sports Park, the open questions are which adaptive and therapeutic features the retained and new spaces will include and when they will be built. CREN will also watch for a site-by-site accounting of how the city spends the parks money as the designs advance.