A Groundbreaking Ceremony for the Billy Cordova Memorial Park in Buena Vista was held on June 15, 2024. The park honors Billy Cordova, a beloved firefighter and community member who passed away in 2022.  Billy was a Battalion Chief with Chaffee County Fire Rescue, a reserve deputy with Chaffee County Sheriff’s Department, a volunteer enforcement officer with the Division of Wildlife, and he was a volunteer with Chaffee County Search & Rescue. In honor of Billy, The park includes first responder themed playground equipment and a meaningful memorial as a central art piece for the park.  

Billy Cordova Memorial Park will be a new community park located on the west side of Buena Vista in the Sunset Vista IV neighborhood. The park design was informed by a robust community engagement process led by a local coalition of neighbors, municipal leaders, parents, and recreation groups that started in 2013. Outreach included neighborhood events at the park site, surveys, classroom design projects, and experts from Colorado Autism Consultants and the Area Council on Aging. This area in BV is a fast-growing part of their community. The nearest park is 1.5 miles away, which makes the park a much-needed space to relax and recreate for many local residents.

In 2022, the Town approached Valerian to provide an updated park design and work with the park steering committee to provide park concept design graphics for a GOCO grant. The Town wanted to serve all abilities and generations, including an inclusive playground and provide amenities to differing physical and neurodivergent abilities, where children of all abilities and ages can play shoulder-to-shoulder.  Other park amenities include trees, an open sod area, accessible parking, multi-purpose court, plumbed restroom and shade structure with picnic tables. BV was awarded the Community Impact GOCO Grant in 2023 for the design and construction of the park. Valerian was the selected landscape architect to provide the construction documents and to oversee the park construction.