Eby Farm Playground

The City of Waterloo is upgrading the play area at Eby Farm in Waterloo Park in 2022. The existing small playground is aging and does not meet the needs of all visitors to the park.

In the fall of 2021, the City of Waterloo applied to the Ontario Trillium Foundation’s Community Building Fund to upgrade the play area to one with an accessible rubberized surface. The application was supported by the Grand River Accessibility Advisory Committee, Waterloo Park Advisory Committee, and the Friends of Waterloo Park. In January 2022, the city was advised that the grant application was approved. The redeveloped playground will be the first playground in the city with an accessible rubberized surface.

Shortly after receiving the grant, city staff engaged a design consultant to create the design and undertake project contract administration. City staff and the design consultant created the design with input from the Grand River Accessibility Advisory Committee. The redeveloped playground will create a playful landscape and an inviting environment for all.

The project timelines are very tight, as the grant requires the project to be delivered within one year, however, the installation of rubberized playground surfacing is limited to dry, warm weather (i.e. summer). Tendering is scheduled to occur shortly and construction is planned to start as soon as feasible after contract award. The image included here shows a rendering of the final design, including shade structures, benches, rubber and artificial turf hills with climbers, a multilevel play structure, play house, accessible spinner, farm animal play sculptures and relocating the existing pig sculptures to a new sand pit.