The Coralville Youth Sports Park will undergo major renovations beginning this year. 

At the Jan. 28, 2025, meeting, the Coralville City Council approved the upcoming project for the park. According to meeting documents, the renovations will include a new 375-foot baseball diamond, another 250-foot baseball diamond, a trail, a player drop-off area, and two areas of marked grass parking area.

The two baseball diamonds will each include fully fenced fields, two batting cages/pitching warm-up areas, dugouts, and bleachers.

Coralville’s Director of Parks and Recreation, Sherri Proud, said the discussion to renovate the park began as part of a 2008 Master Plan. 

The plan entails relocating a baseball diamond from St. Morrison Park to the Youth Sports Park, allowing for an expanded recreation center and additional space at St. Morrison Park.

Proud said adding the new baseball diamonds will create more spaces for teams to practice and play games. 

“The past year, we had 83 different ball teams seeking space for practices,” Proud said. “So, as you can imagine — with all of those numbers — we just have a lot of people who need space to practice and a lot of games that we’re hosting. So the more diamonds we have, the more chance of people being able to get that space.”

In addition, she believes the renovations aim to carry through on the long-term vision for the community’s sports facilities and will significantly benefit the citizens. 

“We had a lot of community input in the development of the Master Plan in 2008, so we’re just trying to carry through on that,” Proud said. 

Coralville’s Deputy City Administrator Ellen Habel said the renovations align with Coralville’s broader vision for recreational facilities while aiming to meet the increasing need for sports facilities and ensuring everyone has access to play during the limited outdoor sports season in Iowa.

“Youth sports are growing significantly; we have a youthful, active population in Coralville, and we wanted to try to accommodate that as always,” Habel said. 

According to Habel, the renovation will bring the total number of 250-foot diamonds at the Youth Sports Park to six, which coincides with the city’s broader plans to enhance recreational offerings.

“I think there’s just so much demand, and we need to try to make sure that there’s time for everybody and to try to make that available to everybody who wants to play,” Habel said.

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Coralville City Councilor Laurie Goodrich said the project, in its third phase, has been in the works for around 20 years. She also shared her gratitude for community members and employees in Coralville who have made this project possible. 

“We are so fortunate to have employees who do all the work in getting ready for these projects, but it starts way back when we do design planning for the city,” Goodrich said. “We’re just so grateful for the planning that has gone on for years in making this possible, and it’s really great that it’s coming to function.”

As the project aims to achieve broader development goals, enhance activities, and accommodate more people, Goodrich said the community has shown enthusiasm for sports and a centralized facility to host various sporting events.

“People love to have tournaments, and, of course, love to have them close to home, and for us to be able to have this area where they can host ball games — both softball and baseball — as well as soccer in one place, is pretty awesome,” Goodrich said. 

The total cost of the renovations is estimated to be almost $2 million, with funding from the Oakdale Research Park Tax Increment Financing. 

The next steps in the renovation process include reviewing design development and construction documents, which begin in mid-February, with the bidding occurring in late April. 

Construction is then estimated to begin in May, wrapping up in November.

Play is anticipated at a limited amount during the Fall of 2026, as the grass growth will take three seasons.