The city plans on starting construction on Sierra Vista Park next month - it is scheduled to open to the public in early May.

Director of Parks and Recreation of Reno say that they finished construction of the perimeter trail around Sierra Vista Park last summer, and at Wednesday's City Council Meeting the city approved to start building the entrance gate for Sierra Vista Park. 

The city will start building multiple biking trails starting in April. "They are going to create three single bike trails for mountain biking that will be a great for the park but it will also connect to Peavine bike trails," explains Bass. 

The city also hopes to add an amphitheater, an archery range and a community center if they receive enough grants and community partners. 

ORIGINAL STORY: 

More than 200 empty acres in Northwest Reno is getting new life as a public park after a city council decision this week.

The site of the former Northgate Golf Course has been empty since 2009, but on Wednesday the Reno City Council unanimously approved a plan to turn it into the Sierra Vista Park.

The 220-acre lot is located in Northwest Reno just east of Somersett bordered by Glen Eagles Drive and Beaumont Parkway in the north and Somersett Parkway in the southwest.

Right now the lot is a ghost of its former self with dry patches where the course used to be and some invasive plants taking over. But city officials have high hopes for what it could turn into over the next 10 years. "It's a great opportunity to have open space preserved in a part of the city that is being built up by residential and commercial, so it's a great way to preserve that land,” says Andy Bass.

The City bought the property in 2011 for $2.5 million, but didn't have a set plan for what to make of it.

Now the council is ready to move forward with its rehabilitation. They're planning to add biking and walking paths, a playground, an amphitheater, an archery range and a nature loop.

But, all this takes money. The council has secured a $134,000 grant to put in the perimeter trail, but Bass says the rest of the project will have to happen in phases as they get the money. "It will be kind of a public/private partnership as we work to complete the park."

Construction on the first phase of the project - putting in some of those trails - will start this summer.