Holmes Family Park may be the most heavily planned public space Chelsea has built. More than 2,500 community members gave input on its design, more than 720 donors paid for it, and volunteers put in 18,500 hours before the ribbon was cut on Aug. 21. Two months later, the park at 500 S. Main St. is going through a different kind of planning. That work is happening in Parks and Recreation Commission meetings and police updates. It's also happening in the state highway right-of-way at its front entrance, where people are learning what the drawings left open.
The design came first. The house rules are coming now, and they're shaped by how the place gets used. That's the story of the park's first fall.
What Two Months of Use Have Settled
The site was a long-vacant Federal Screw Works industrial property. Main Street Park Alliance, the nonprofit behind the project, bought it in 2022. According to The Sun Times News, the Alliance raised $11 million for the park. Private donations made up $6.6 million of that, so most of the money came from people and businesses rather than public sources. The park's name honors the Holmes family, who founded Chelsea Milling Co. and JIFFY Mixes more than a century ago. The family helped raise more than 30 percent of the project's funding.
Here's what's open this fall and what's still being finished:
| Feature | Where it stands this fall |
|---|---|
| Skatepark, about 8,000 sq. ft. | Open since Aug. 21 |
| Climbing wall | Open since Aug. 21 |
| Courts, about 11,000 sq. ft., including basketball and bocce | Open, with bocce drawing a growing following |
| Pavilion with murals by Chelsea High School alumna Sophia Pappas | Used by visitors on opening day, murals in place |
| Quarter-mile accessible perimeter path | Part of the built design |
| Gas fire pit | Stonework was nearly complete in June |
| Hammock grove | Mentioned by visitors on opening day |
| Native plantings and final green-space work | Still listed as outstanding on the Alliance's timeline |
| Splash pad | Dropped from the final design |
The splash pad was cut on purpose. The Alliance looked at its water use, maintenance needs and cost, and decided against it. Some details also arrived after opening. On opening day, WEMU reported that furniture, a donor sign and the front name sign were still to come. The park opened before it was finished, and the work on it has continued into the fall.
Ownership is also in progress. On July 27, Chelsea City Council unanimously approved resolutions so staff could begin taking over the park from the Alliance. City Manager Elle Cole told The Sun Times News that the city was "not the city accepting Holmes Family Park casually," and described attorney guidance, scheduled walkthroughs and a documented punch list.
The First Rules Came From the First Evenings
The design phase couldn't predict how the park would actually be used, so the rules are coming from what's happened since August. At the Parks and Recreation Commission's Oct. 6 meeting, Police Chief Kevin Kazyak gave an update. As The Chelsea Post reported, he said the biggest issue so far was kids wanting to stay after 10 p.m.
Several rules came out of that meeting:
- Lights go out at 10 p.m. Kazyak asked that people be reminded of this.
- Bikes are walked, not ridden, through the park, and they aren't allowed in the skatepark.
- Cameras were expected to be installed by the end of October.
- Officers keep monitoring the park. Kazyak said nothing has gotten out of hand.
A place shaped by thousands of residents' input is now getting its everyday rules from a few weeks of evenings and weekends. As the days get shorter, the 10 p.m. lights-out will matter more. The courts and skatepark will be dark well before dinner unless the park lights are on.
A Front Entrance on a Road Chelsea Doesn't Control
The park faces Main Street, and in Chelsea that stretch of Main Street is M-52, a Michigan Department of Transportation highway. The commission heard that this limits what the city can do on its own to make the crossing safer.
For now, the city has placed vertical "Stop For Pedestrian Within Crosswalk" panels on Main Street near the park entrance, and MDOT plans a traffic study. In May, the Alliance reported that MDOT had approved a gateway crossing at Van Buren and Main Street to improve pedestrian access across M-52. No timeline for the study has been published.
That makes the crossing part of most visits. The park has no dedicated parking lot. The nearest public options are the free municipal lot at Palmer Commons, the lot near City Offices and Chelsea District Library, and free street parking nearby. The park also connects to the Border-to-Border Trail. Depending on where you park or which direction you walk from, a trip to the climbing wall may start with crossing a state highway. Part of how the park feels to visitors will come down to a state traffic study.
The Bocce Sets Live at the Library
According to The Chelsea Post, a growing number of people want to learn bocce at Holmes Family Park. Lessons and mini-games run Fridays at 1 p.m., and pop-up games happen on Wednesdays. The equipment isn't stored at the park. You check it out at Chelsea District Library.
That setup ties the new park to a long-standing downtown institution. Picking up a bocce set means stopping at the library first, which joins the two places in one outing. Several other features also connect to Chelsea's past. The muralist is a Chelsea High School graduate, and the name comes from the family behind JIFFY Mixes. At the ribbon cutting, Debbie Dingell thanked John Mann, former CEO of Chelsea State Bank, for his work with the Alliance.
"That's what community is: embracing everybody, having a place for gathering," Dingell said, according to The Sun Times News.
Who Pays for Upkeep After the Ribbon Cutting
Building a park and maintaining one are funded differently, and Chelsea's late-fall calendar shows the next step. On Saturday, Oct. 24, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., the Old St. Mary School at 400 Congdon St. hosts a fundraiser for Chelsea's Parks and Pathways Sustainability Fund. Owners Cynthia and Dave Burgoyne have renovated the building. The tour has a Harry Potter and Edgar Allan Poe theme to show off the building's Gothic Revival architecture. Tickets are $25, and kids under 12 get in free.
The commission is also already working on the next park. Pierce Park, at 901 S. Main St., ran a community survey through mid-September. A subcommittee met Oct. 9 to discuss the results and how to apply for grants. The results haven't been published yet, but the process looks a lot like the early stages of Holmes Family Park.
Pierce Park also hosts Chelsea's first big holiday gathering. Chelsea Rotary's Hometown Holiday tree lighting runs Friday, Dec. 4, from 5 to 6:30 p.m. Cocoa and pizza are served from 5 to 6 p.m., the middle school choir sings at 5:30, and Santa lights the tree at 6. Holmes Family Park appeared on the Oct. 7 agenda of a Chelsea committee, listed with sledding, birding, open gyms and curling under fall and winter activities.
Following how Chelsea's downtown is changing, from a new park entrance on M-52 to the next round of Pierce Park plans, is part of how Stephen Hollowell keeps up with the neighborhoods he serves. If you'd like to talk about what changes like these mean for your corner of Chelsea, Stephen is happy to meet for a relaxed conversation. Schedule a free consultation whenever it suits you.
