City of Gainesville adds or upgrades lighting at five parks

Press release from the City of Gainesville

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – In Fiscal Year 2025, the City of Gainesville’s Department of Parks, Recreation and Cultural Affairs (PRCA) provided 38,000 hours of park maintenance, logged 204,996 users on the City’s nature trails, and counted more than 38,000 rounds of golf played at Ironwood Golf Course. It’s clear the department’s 3,268 acres of parks — 90 in all — are enjoyed by thousands of users every year. But many of those users have consistently requested the same improvement: more and better lighting for nighttime play on courts, diamonds, and multipurpose athletic fields.

In fact, adding to the City’s inventory of lighted multipurpose fields currently ranks as one of the highest priorities in the City’s park master plan. For that reason, Gainesville’s Wild Spaces & Public Places (WSPP) Department has worked with PRCA to complete a nearly two-year project that brings much-needed sports lighting upgrades to five parks across the city.

“The majority of this was improving existing lighting,” says WSPP Director Betsy Waite. “We had lights within the City of Gainesville that were over 25 years old. They’d reached the end of their useful life, and the light levels from 25 years ago are not really what people expect today.”

To remedy that problem, WSPP installed new state-of-the-art LED lights at all five parks on the project list. Facilities that already had some outdoor lighting were outfitted with replacement technology that provides brighter, clearer, and more energy-efficient illumination. Other parks with no outdoor lights at all were significantly transformed by the addition of brand-new systems, making nighttime play possible for the first time.

“At Fred Cone Park, we lit a basketball court that was not previously lit,” says Director Waite, “and we also lit a multipurpose field. So now people have another place to play during the winter months when we have shorter daylight hours, expanding the use of the facility.”

As part of the city-wide improvement, the new state-of-the-art LED sports lighting has been installed at the following City of Gainesville parks:

Albert “Ray” Massey Park – Softball Field, Basketball Courts, Baseball Fields & Tennis Courts (1001 NW 34th St.)

• Upgraded LED lighting on the softball field, basketball courts, and baseball fields 1 & 2 to support evening play and improve field illumination.
• Upgraded LED lighting across all eight tennis courts, featuring 48 state-of-the-art luminaires. Courts are now fully illuminated from dusk until 10 p.m. and can be reserved through Play Tennis Gainesville.

Cora P. Roberson Park – Basketball Courts (600 SW 6th St.)

• Upgraded LED lighting on the basketball courts to provide more consistent, energy-efficient illumination.

Fred Cone Park – Basketball Courts & Multipurpose Field (2801 E. University Ave.)

• Installation of new LED lighting for the basketball courts and multipurpose field, expanding opportunities for nighttime recreation.

Greentree Park – Baseball Fields (3700 NW 19th St.)

• Upgraded LED sports lighting on the baseball fields for enhanced visibility and safety.

Tom Petty Park – Softball/Baseball Fields, Tennis Courts, & Multipurpose Field (501 NE 16th Ave.)

• Upgraded LED lighting for softball/baseball fields and tennis courts, plus new lighting for the multipurpose field.
• Improvements at Tom Petty Park are still underway, including eight fully-lighted pickleball courts. That project also will have new landscaping, a stormwater pond, an expansion of the existing trail, and a new restroom, concessions, and storage building. Construction is expected to wrap in the spring of 2026.

The city-wide park lighting project, at a total cost of $2,579,550, was fully funded through the voter-approved WSPP half-cent sales tax.