Park lovers should be happy to hear that a new park has been added to the list in Okotoks.

The temporarily named Drake Common Landing Park can be found on the escarpment behind Seaman Stadium and is adjacent to the Drake Landing neighborhood.

Parks Manager Christa Michailuck says though the town already has a wide variety of parks, there was a reason for the development of the land.

"The reason why this park was developed was because we the Town were the developer of the business park down below...So as a developer we needed to allocate at least 10% of land in the area to park space. So this was the parcel that was selected for this purpose, which was a good location... being on top of the escarpment and where the views are fabulous."

Michailuck says the park includes some new more natural features like a pathway that connects to the existent system, gravel pathways for alternative options, and hand crafted benches donated by an Okotokian.

"Don Barnes, and unfortunately he's recently passed away, he volunteered his time to cut some big slabs of local old growth poplar that we used to make benches out of. These benches can be located in this park."

The on the leash park is for nature lovers, Michailuck says, "When you're up there you can really take in a full mountain view as well as there is a view down to the south east of the ravine area, which is well treed and full of birds. It's a very nice atmosphere up there for any kind of natural park lovers."

The park will be renamed within the next year once the council gets together and researches the history of the area to come up with a more creative title.

As for now, it takes the name of the street address it is located on.

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