Children's Park

The key milestone progression:

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• November 2019 – Idea conceived after family trip to Tortuguero; approached Municipality of Santa Cruz about a designated lot

• 2019–2020 – Formed kids' park committee; submitted first proposal to the municipality

• End of 2020 – Approval received, but municipality said they'd build it in 5–10 years with no current funding

• 2020–2022 – Pivoted to self-build model; submitted new 50-page proposal; faced repeated rejections over minor wording issues and bureaucratic delays

• End of 2022 – Project nearly abandoned after the  municipality made us feel we couldn’t advance

• Late 2022 – Chance meeting with the mayor at an event; he promised permission within a week

• Late 2023 – Official permission to build finally granted; project transitioned from small committee to full community association effort

• 2024 – Secured water access; held fundraiser; brought in backhoe to clear land; added fill for rancho and bathroom pads

• 2024 – Volunteer engineer revealed existing plans were too basic to build from; construction paused

• End of 2024 – Hired first professional architect

• End of 2025 – Twelve months of design work completed; plans finalized

• Early 2026 – Quotes received from seven contractors: $336K–$650K; redesign underway to bring cost to under $250K

• Now – $32K in donations banked, $8,300 spent on earthwork and plans; third round of redesigns in progress

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The Story of the Playa Grande Kid’s Park

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In November 2019, after a family trip to Tortuguero, I came back to Playa Grande with a simple idea: a kids park. Nothing extravagant, just a place for families, for laughter, for community.

I walked into the Municipality of Santa Cruz and asked about a piece of land. They showed me the lot designated for the park. With the help of a few people in town, the kid’s park committee, we submitted our first proposal to have the park built.

That’s when the journey really began.

Entering COVID obviously slowed the process down a bit, but by the end of 2020, the kid’s park committee of Playa Grande finally got approval. But not the kind we hoped for. They told us they’d build it…eventually. Five to ten years, maybe. “No funds,” they told us. 

So we pivoted from trying to get the municipality to build us a park to asking: “What if we build it ourselves?”

The municipality said yes, but we would have to submit a new proposal for the project.  And this time, everything got more complicated and difficult because we were taking responsibility to build a municipal park on a municipal lot with private donations.  

Here is a brief glimpse into the locura. (I could write 10,000 words on the hoops they made me jump through). 

We submitted the 50 page document with everything asked for.  Papers submitted, ya casi. 

2 months later, they returned it because we used “drenaje” instead of “sangha.”   So we fixed it and sent it back the next day.  

Ya casi. 

2 months later, they need clarity on a couple different words 2 pages later.  This time we had a lawyer friend look at it and give a response.  We felt very confident to have a lawyer helping us speak.  

For sure now, Ya casi.  

After the next gut wrenching rejection, I personally went with my son to the municipality where it was insinuated that the project would move much faster if there was some money involved, which we were not going to take part in, so I felt that inescapable feeling of maybe never realizing the goal of building a kids park here.  We thought about maybe just returning to the original plan of having the muni build the park. 

But we weren’t close at all.  This was the end of 2022.

Then the universe intervened with a chance meeting.  

Some members of the association met the mayor at an event and called me. I ran over, introduced myself, and explained what we were trying to do. He looked at me and said, “You’ll have permission next week.”

Back in the game.  

Ya casi. 

The Association kept the project afloat and the dream alive.  

This was the tangible moment when the park became of dream of a small committee, to a community project of the Association.  Without the Association, the project would have died. 

I am also happy to report that the mayor is a man of his word.

While we still had to go through the tedious process getting all necessary signatures and approvals, 11 months later, we finally had permission to build.  

The committee celebrated! The Association celebrated and we all said, “Ya casi.”

Then things started moving. We secured water. We held a fundraiser. We brought in a backhoe and began clearing the land. We redirected the rain runoff until the backhoe literally got stuck in the mud. So we shifted focus and brought in 4 trucks of fill and created the pads for the rancho and bathroom.  

There was this feeling of relief, “finally.”

When I went to sleep at night, I could envision the park.  

As we went to build the first retaining wall, we hit a very hard wall.  

Our volunteer engineer dropped a truth bomb that the plans we used to get approval were nowhere near detailed enough to actually build from. His solution? Design as we go.

We decided that was not a good idea.  We needed the actual plans.   

I take 100% responsibility for this obstacle because I knew that the plans were ridiculously basic, but I wasn’t focusing on anything but getting the project through the permission process.  This mistake cost us lots of time and lots of money.  But at least we had the permission to build. 

Learning more from this error, we decided to stop relying on volunteers to do professional jobs and so at the end of 2024, we hired our first architect. 

Twelve months of design work later, meeting every month or two to tweak the design, we had something incredible. 

Ya casi. 

We took the plans to seven contractors.

After 4-5 months waiting to get the quotes, they came back: $336K to $650K.

That is where we are now. We are working on redesigning and simplifying it to cut costs without losing the heart of the project. 

We are trying to get the final cost to a maximum of $250,000

Ya casi.

We still have over $31,000 in the bank from all the donations large and small over the past 2 years. We have spent about $8300 earth moving and architectural plans over the past 2 years as well.  All the money is being used responsibly. Every dollar is accounted for and I would be happy to go over the entire budget with anyone who wants precise details.  

This started as a passion project.

Now it feels more like an endurance project that I didn’t fully understand when I started.

There have been moments where I’ve wondered if I should keep going or pass it on. Maybe I’ve taken it as far as I can.

Because the truth is, this has been one of the most challenging things I’ve ever done.

Not the work, but the unknowns, the delays, the constant shifting, and the reliance on people who mean well but don’t always follow through.

My lesson from working with volunteers is they say yes, you give them space because they’re busy, you check in a week later, they promise it’s coming…then another week goes by, and silence.

I am grateful for all the lessons that I have learned along this journey, all the mistakes I’ve made, and all the celebrations and disappointments.

After every step forward, we would say, 

Ya casi.

And every time, another obstacle appeared.

But here we are.

We are finishing the third round of designs. We are closer than we’ve ever been. And soon we’ll be ready to invite you to help us bring this to life.

This next phase is going to take all of us.

We are going to need to raise over $200,000 to bring this park to life.

So if you’ve read this story and felt something…

If you’ve ever said, “This would be amazing for Playa Grande”…

If you want your kids to have a place to play, connect, and grow…

Get ready to be part of this.

We are going to be calling on this community in a big way.

Donations. Connections. Fundraising ideas. Sponsors. Energy.

Whatever you have to give, there is a place for you in this.

Because this park will not be built by a committee or an association. 

It will be built by a community that decides to show up.

We’re almost there.

Ya casi,

Matthew

 

This committee is integrated by Mathew Laskowski, Felipe Volio, Alex Bidorini, and Federico de Mezerville. 

Fundraising efforts will be in junction with the Sidewalk Committee under the campaign JUNTOS SOMOS GRANDE! Pedestrian mobility and a place for our kids to play and gather as a community are both projects that resonate as one to keep our community united and safe. 

If you have any questions recarding the Children’s Park, please contact: matthewlaskowski@gmail.com