The play area at Franklin Park covers 2,390 square feet of blue and gray poured-in-place rubber, two inches thick. On top of it is a custom GameTime structure with low ramps, slides, a platform rocker and climbers. Around the edge are a set of seven Harmonic Chimes, Cantata Chimes, Melody Chimes, a Sensory Ring, a Duo Spinner, a communication board and a Shadow Play Flower that throws colored shadows onto the ground.
The City of Redondo Beach calls it the City's first all-accessible play space. The City scheduled the ribbon cutting for Thursday, Nov. 5, at 807 S. Inglewood Avenue. The playground is also the first finished piece of a larger change on this block. One of the groups that helped design it is building a $70 million campus right next door.
Who sat at the design table
The design came from a working group, and the staff never handed it to a vendor to draw up alone. According to the April 21, 2026 City Council staff report, City staff and Councilmember Kaluderovic, whose district includes Franklin Park, brought together a stakeholder group. It included:
- people who already use the park
- occupational therapists and other developmental professionals
- parents and family members of children with disabilities who visit the park
- a representative from the Friendship Foundation
- Public Amenities Commissioners Lang, Caldwell and Galassi, who serve on the Franklin Park Playground Subcommittee
The group met for several months, from June through September 2025, and the City Council approved the final design on Dec. 2, 2025. Community Services Director Elizabeth Hause told the council that staff also worked with a "playologist" to plan the space. She was frank about how much room they had, Patch reported:
"It's not a very big space... we're actually able to include almost all of the amenities that the working group wanted to include in this space."
Space shaped the layout. The staff report says the main structure holds the ramping, slides, rocker, climbers and sensory boards. The stand-alone pieces, such as the spinner, the chime panels and the shadow feature, sit around the edge "to fit as many engaging pieces in the area as possible." The contract lists the structure for ages 5 to 12. The City's wider project description talks about children of all ages and abilities.
The LA Kings Foundation left its mark too. Five crown attachments and five paw-print attachments on the posts make up a scavenger hunt. Hause told Patch the paw prints stand for Bailey, the team's mascot.
Most of the money came from somewhere other than the general fund
The playground cost less than its budget, and very little of the money came from the City's discretionary funds. Here are the figures from each stage of the project:
| Stage | Figure | Where it came from |
|---|---|---|
| Original allocation, FY 2024–25 budget | $500,000 | Quimby fees |
| CPRS and GameTime joint grant | 50% off equipment, valued by Patch at $99,000 | California Parks and Recreation Society, GameTime |
| LA Kings Foundation donation | $75,000 | LA Kings Foundation |
| December 2025 estimate after donations | $315,000 | Reported by Patch |
| April 2026 contract with Playcore, dba GameTime | $394,856.32, including $5,939 for bonds | City Council staff report |
| Left for other park improvements | About $180,000 | City Council staff report |
The first line of the table matters most. At the December 2025 meeting, Councilmember Zein Obagi confirmed with staff where the base funding came from and explained it this way, according to Patch: "Quimby funds are specifically designated for enhancing open space, and they're funded by new development fees that are collected when people build in the city." The City's adopted five-year capital plan lists the Franklin Park playground as project No. 30970, funded through the Subdivision Park Trust.
GameTime brought more than a discount. The staff report says the City chose the company partly because it had already done work in Redondo Beach, including new shade structures beside the Franklin Park play area and the playground at Dominguez Park.
The project took longer than planned. In December 2025, Patch reported an expected opening in summer 2026, and at a June 9, 2026 council meeting the playground was still described as one that "should be constructed in the summer." The Playcore contract set substantial completion for Sept. 30, 2026. The City then set the ribbon cutting for early November and listed the LA Kings Foundation, the California Parks and Recreation Society and GameTime as supporters. Councilmember Brad Waller also promoted the ceremony in his Oct. 26 newsletter.
The neighbor that helped design it opens in January
The Friendship Foundation had a seat in the working group because of what it is building next door. The staff report describes the foundation as building a facility beside the park "that will provide services for individuals with special needs." That facility is the Friendship Campus, on Inglewood Avenue at the former Franklin Elementary School site. The groundbreaking took place in August 2022, The MB News reported.
The project has grown since then. An Oct. 13, 2026 Skechers release calls it the Friendship Campus (The Greenberg Family/Skechers Center). It is a $70 million building of nearly 62,000 square feet for young adults with special needs. It will have a creative arts studio, a culinary institute and a recreation center, along with life-skills programs, early education and mentoring. The grand opening is set for Jan. 21, 2027. The campus will also be the foundation's new headquarters. The same release says the foundation began 19 years ago with 30 participants in one school's Buddy Program and now reaches more than 5,000 students, participants and volunteers across Los Angeles County.
Skechers president Michael Greenberg, a co-founder of the Pier to Pier Friendship Walk, described the campus in that release as "a first-of-its-kind center where neurodivergent young adults who once had few options after high school can continue their journey, build independence and find their purpose." The walk itself, held this year on Oct. 18, has raised more than $32 million for children since it started.
The playground is sized for ages 5 to 12, and the campus serves young adults. Within a few months of each other, the same stretch of Inglewood Avenue gets an accessible place to play for younger children and a large program center for the years after high school. The foundation helped shape both.
What the rest of Franklin Park still offers
The new play area replaces an aging playground. Everything else in the park stays the same. According to the City's park and recreation listings, Franklin Park also has:
- restrooms and picnic areas
- two moon-bounce reservation areas
- two shuffleboard courts
- three pickleball courts: two share space with basketball and one shares the volleyball area. Play is first-come, with posted schedules for the basketball and pickleball courts.
The City's pickleball page has the details on the shared courts. The City also says it added pickleball lines and repainted the shared surfaces at Franklin, Perry and Anderson parks. The staff report puts the money left over at about $180,000 for other improvements at Franklin Park.
Nearby cities have taken their own approaches. Hermosa Beach's South Park playground opened in 2016 with an accessible winding path among concrete slides and rope courses, and the city renamed it Casey Rohrer Accessibility Park in November 2025, the Easy Reader reported. Manhattan Beach rebuilt the Polliwog Park playground with ADA-accessible structures and an ADA walkway for $2.95 million and held its ribbon cutting on Sept. 26, 2023. Redondo's version cost the City far less, fits into about 2,400 square feet, and was planned with the organization opening next door in January.
If you live near Franklin Park and are wondering how the new playground and the Friendship Campus might shape this part of North Redondo, I'm happy to talk it through. Theresa Bruno has lived in the South Bay since 1984. Request a free home valuation and you'll get a clear read on your home and what's changing on your block.
