Sterling Heights breaks ground on Red Run Park, adding dog park

Sterling Heights broke ground Monday on Red Run Park, a flagship project meant to turn a long-owned site into a long-awaited recreation hub for the city’s southern side. The plan calls for six lighted pickleball courts, a dedicated dog park, a lighted basketball court and interior non-motorized trails, along with a 24-hour public library kiosk, a rentable pavilion, gathering spaces and a year-round restroom with an adult changing station. Mayor Michael C. Taylor said, “This project represents exactly what residents envisioned when they supported the Pathway to Play and Preservation millage.”

For owners of high-energy dogs, the dog park is the part that changes the weekly routine. Sterling Heights already describes its Delia Park dog park as an off-leash facility, and Red Run will add another dedicated dog park on the east side of the city, where officials say park-access gaps have been a problem. Planning for the park began in 2023 and was refined through resident feedback, which gives the project a practical edge beyond the ribbon-cutting language: it is being built as a place where dogs that run hot can actually get regular use, not just a new sign on a fence.

The trail piece matters just as much as the fenced space. City materials say Red Run Park is a step toward finishing the final segment of the Iron Belle Trail, and Spalding DeDecker says the work will also connect the park to Baumgartner Park and local pathway networks with a pedestrian bridge over the Red Run Drain. Sterling Heights says it already has more than fifteen miles of dedicated trails across its park system, so Red Run is being built as part of a larger movement network rather than a stand-alone amenity. For active dogs and the people who run with them, that means the new park could become a place to stack a trail walk, a sprint and a cooldown in one trip.

The timing now shifts from speeches to construction. City budget materials say Red Run Park improvements and the pickleball complex are expected to continue through the 2026/27 fiscal year, while spring coverage put published project estimates at about $4.7 million in some reports and about $7 million in others. Local reporting has also identified Red Run Park as the city’s first new park in decades, which helps explain why this site has drawn outsized attention in a part of Sterling Heights that officials say has needed more park access. The Pathway to Play and Preservation millage, approved by voters in November 2024, is now paying for that buildout.