The Village of Royal Palm Beach recently opened its 21st park, and it’s already one of the most popular recreation hotspots in the community. Crestwood Park North boasts two pickleball courts, two tennis courts, four glass basketball backboards, a huge fishing pier, an attractive playground, a picnic pavilion and plenty of wide-open green space.
Parks & Recreation Director Mark Pawlowski is really pleased with the community’s quick embrace of the park, built along the M-1 Canal, adjacent to the BellaSera neighborhood and across the canal from H.L. Johnson Elementary School.
“The park started drawing users right away,” he said. “Every time I stop by, even before we announced its opening, the facilities are being used. Even when schools were recently closed for Hurricane Helene, the playground was busy with dads playing with their out-of-school kids.”
The park sits on 5.8 acres of M-1 Canal waterfront that the developers of BellaSera were required to set aside for a village park open to the public. The $3 million park was funded by the village’s share of local sales surtax money, plus a Land and Recreation Grant the village applied for and won through the Land and Water Conservation Fund. The LWCF is a federal competitive program that provides grants for acquisition or development of land for public outdoor recreation.
Pawlowski said that the village requested input from residents before the design was complete. At a public planning meeting in 2020, Madison Green resident JoAnne Diasio came out to ask the village to place an emphasis on developing the waterfront. She got her wish. The park now boasts the village’s largest fishing facility. A spacious boardwalk doubling as a fishing pier runs several hundred feet along the wide canal.
Fishing is what recently attracted residents Mary and Kai Abuan to visit Crestwood Park North.
“We live in the southern portion of Royal Palm Beach near Costco and heard that this park has good fishing,” said Kai, a digital marketing professional.
He recently spent one pleasant sunset fishing with his wife Mary and their two children, Kaison and Kalia.
“The new park is wonderful,” Mary added. “This is a beautiful outdoors spot, and it’s a great place to bring our kids and maybe instill a love of nature. Plus, after fishing, the kids love to play in the playground.”
La Mancha residents Claudia and Sean Bevans enjoy the park for its pickleball opportunities.
“Pickleball is not only fun as all heck, but it provides a wonderful workout,” said Sean, a Palm Beach County firefighter.
His wife agreed. “Pickleball is so popular. Sometimes, like tonight, we have to play on a tennis court,” added Claudia, a teacher at Royal Palm Beach Elementary School.
As she spoke, pickleball was being played on both tennis courts, as well as on the two smaller pickleball courts.
BellaSera, including the five acres set aside for the new village park, is the former site of a municipal wastewater plant that the village owned but it became surplus property when Royal Palm Beach sold its water and wastewater utilities to the county. As a condition of plat approval, developer Lennar agreed to dedicate waterfront land for the park.
Crestwood Park North is already attracting visitors from neighboring communities, such as Westlake resident Jessica Leow, who visited the park’s play area on a recent weekday with daughter Grace and son Daniel. “This park is wonderful,” she said.
Pawlowski, who took over as parks and recreation director last year, is also impressed by the new park, as well as all the other village parks.
“Royal Palm Beach has a robust parks system, and it’s much different from other systems I’ve managed in Illinois,” he said.
When asked about the differences, he added, “It’s the size. Our parks are enormous compared to neighborhood parks up north.”
He pointed to the 164-acre Commons Park, describing it as “probably one of the largest municipal parks in Florida.”
The added size allowed the park planners to incorporate plenty of open green space at Crestwood Park North, where visitors can fly kites, play touch football or just enjoy the great outdoors.
The new park is located at 900 Crestwood Blvd. North. For more information on village parks, visit www.royalpalmbeachfl.gov/parksrec.
