Walnut neighborhood park

Located directly next to Crossroads Church on Cesar Chavez Ave, Walnut Neighborhood Park was built in love, for the community, and is open to all. The pavilion is free for community use, however it cannot be reserved for private events — feel free to hold your birthday parties, meetings, etc. in the pavilion with an attitude that the space is shared, we just ask that you please clean up after yourself to help keep the park beautiful for all.

If you ever run into any issues at the park please contact us (info@lansingcrossroads.com) and we will do our best to address those issues. We also invite you to fill out our questionnaire about the park: click here.

Grand Opening of Walnut Neighborhood Park - Sept 2023

How We Got Here

At Crossroads Church, we saw the vision of replacing a blighted house next door and redeeming that space with a community park. Initially, we sought the guidance of a landscape design architect who estimated that the project would cost around $225,000.

This number was far beyond what we knew we could afford. Yet, we believed that God was leading us to continue walking through the open doors and trust that He would do something special with what we had.

As a church, we committed to raising $50,000, which was completed on November 29th of 2021. This fundraising campaign was done in partnership with the Michigan Economic Development Corporation (MEDC) who matched our $50,000, for a total of $100,000.

At this point in time, we were confident we could move forward with demolishing the abandoned house next door and would at least be able to have some sort of park project in the works.

Then we turned our attention to the Community Foundation who offered grants ranging from $10,000 - $75,000.  Without knowing the total amount of money we were going to have for the project, we could not move forward until a plan had been submitted to the city. On June 16th, we were awarded a grant in the full amount of $75,000, which was confirmation that this project was indeed going to happen. At this point, we had a guaranteed $175,000, and for the first time, could see that what we had envisioned from the beginning was achievable. 

When attempting to pull the proper permits for the project we learned that the pavilion needed architectural stamped designs.  A local architectural firm named Studio Intrigue then helped us to create the blueprints to have submitted to the city for review.

We then learned that we needed a special permit from the Department of Environment, Great Lakes (EGLE) that took two months to receive. Then on September 30th, we received a notice that we could move forward. It was not until we received this notice that we could work on getting the Soil Erosion Sedimentation Control (SESC) permit needed through the city. When we submitted the plan, small changes were then required from our Landscape Architect, which all took time and coordination.

Throughout this process, we have been overwhelmed, by God’s hand in all of it as He is turning our $50,000 dollars into a $225,000+ park that will be used for His glory. 

From the beginning, we understood that on paper, this project may have seemed nearly impossible. Yet, we believe that the financial and logistical challenges that have been overcome are a clear indication that this plan was not our own but the Lord’s. Now, as the foundations of the park are now being built, we can clearly see God’s hand at work all along the way.

We want to sincerely thank everyone who’s had a hand in the process thus far.

Please pray with us that this park will be a place of love, joy, safety, and a light to our hurting city. Pray that God will use it to be a place where memories are made, relationships are built, and where the hope of the Gospel is shared.