RARE Park opens with pickleball courts, walking path and playground

Four gated pickleball courts, a quarter-mile walking path and an expanded playground turned RARE Park into something more than a standard court build. The 1.86-acre site on the north side of the Recreation Authority Center at 18185 Sycamore St. in Roseville officially opened with a public-facing mix of amenities designed to draw walkers, families, gardeners and players to the same campus.

For pickleball, the key detail is access. The courts are open play, but they are gated, and players have to check in with the Recreation Authority before they can start a match. That puts the site in a different category from private clubs and reserved-court complexes, and it gives Roseville and Eastpointe a new municipal option at a time when demand for court time keeps climbing. The four-court layout matters because it creates enough space for serving, rallying and rotating players without turning the entire park into a one-sport installation.

The broader park package is what makes the project notable as a public recreation investment. Along with the pickleball courts and walking path, RARE Park includes a picnic pavilion with tables and barbecue grills, two cornhole courts, a community garden and the expanded playground. That combination gives the site a steady stream of uses across the day, from morning walkers to after-school families to evening pickleball players. It also makes the park a template other suburbs could study when they add courts without isolating them from the rest of the public space.

The project came together with help from a $698,300 Michigan Spark Grant through the Michigan Department of Natural Resources. The grant program is funded through American Rescue Plan Act money and is aimed at communities still feeling the effects of COVID-19. The final round of recommended Spark funding was announced July 10, 2024, and RARE Park was among the projects that moved forward from that round.

Local leaders framed the opening as a long-awaited milestone. Recreation Authority of Roseville and Eastpointe Executive Director Tony Lipinski called RARE Park the authority’s first park and said the project had been on the community’s mind for a long time. State Rep. Mai Xiong of Warren attended the May 20 ribbon cutting and presented a legislative tribute, underscoring the political support behind the site.

RARE described the community garden as an inclusive space built to foster community relationships, environmental stewardship, local food sovereignty and healthy lifestyles. For pickleball players, though, the message is even simpler: there are four new public courts in Roseville, and they are already part of a park built to serve more than one kind of daily use.