Indy Parks renovation includes “a green makeover”

In an Indianapolis park, northwest of downtown on Fall Creek, a large pile of dirt sits on the greenspace awaiting a makeover. 

Indianapolis has set aside $2.8 million in funding to renovate Graham Edward Martin Park, part of that work, about $1 million, is for environmental remediation or a “green makeover.”

Named for retired Navy Lieutenant and longtime Crispus Attucks educator Graham E. Martin, the park was targeted for revitalization for years. Indy Parks Principal Planner Andre Denman said they looked for solutions for almost a decade. 

“We have been working to try to bring improvements to this park even before it was named for the great person in his name,” he said.

This is one of multiple Indianapolis parks improvements in recent years. Record-level city, federal and philanthropic funds made them possible. The Graham Edward Martin Park project is funded through a Lilly Endowment Grant and federal earmark funds. Its environmental mitigation is funded through the Indy Parks budget.

The city worked with the Indiana Department of Environmental Management, IDEM. Soil sampling identified toxins in the soil including heavy metals and PHA’s. PHA’s are polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons that occur naturally in coal, crude oil, gas, and other products.

Denman said contaminated soil is a common issue in urban areas.

“It used to be a site, along the riverbank, where people were mining stone and other materials and they didn’t take care in what they put back in to fill in the hole,” he said.

The type of fill material used was typical in the 1970s, but it is now considered unsafe. 

Other Indy Parks needed similar environmental remediation in recent years. Dr. Gabriel Filippelli is Executive Director of the IU Environmental Resilience Institute.

He consulted with Indy Parks for other projects and said the work is vital for a greener future. “When you see these things in these environments, they do need to be cleaned up,” Fiippelli said.

Denman said a pile of clean soil on the greenway will soon be joined by more piles, from other parks projects, to form a barrier between people and the pollutants.

“Basically reusing some of the clean soil that was going to be removed from those projects, they’re going to be piled in individual piles and then once we get the OK from IDEM we will spread two feet of coverage on the entire park from 16th street down to 10th,” Denman said.

Other improvements for the park include a new playground, splash pad, trail upgrades and new multi-use playing fields, tennis and pickleball courts. All work is slated to be completed in 2026.

Contact WFYI managing editor city desk Jill Sheridan at jsheridan@wfyi.org.