For decades, a sprawling stretch of land in Houston’s Sunnyside neighborhood sat fenced off and forgotten, overgrown with weeds and largely invisible to the city’s parks planning.
That same property is now open to the public as Hill at Sims, a 100-acre urban greenspace representing the largest parks investment the historically underserved neighborhood has seen in nearly 50 years.
The $30 million project, a public-private partnership that took years of advocacy and more than 20 public meetings with input from over 700 residents to realize, transforms what was once a stormwater detention basin into one of Houston’s most distinctive new parks.
With nearly five miles of trails, fishing areas, public art installations, and a 60-foot hill offering sweeping views of downtown, Uptown, and the Texas Medical Center, Hill at Sims was designed to provide Houstonians with alternative paths along the waterways to local destinations. Houston currently ranks 69th among the nation’s 100 largest cities for access to parks and green space, according to the nonprofit Trust for Public Land, a figure that leaders hope projects like Hill at Sims will begin to change.
“For too long, communities like this one were expected to go without the kind of green space that other neighborhoods take for granted. The Hill Sims is a landmark $30 million investment in this community and is fulfilling a promise that was made to people when this community was developed,” Harris County Commissioner Rodney Ellis said. “Every community deserves beautiful parks, safe places to gather, and it means a lot to have trails, to have nature, to have water.”
A long time coming
Ellis, who grew up in Sunnyside, spearheaded the project.
He recalled visiting the property years ago during a bike ride, finding it largely inaccessible and neglected, scattered with weeds and trash.
Winding footpaths now cut through grounds, and murals brighten the landscape. Most strikingly, the 60-foot hill, crowned by the Brown Foundation Hilltop Pavilion, offers visitors one of the few elevated skyline views in Houston’s notoriously flat terrain.
For Ellis, the park carries a deeper meaning.
“From the top of that hill, no matter what your zip code is, what you look like, where you from, when you look at that skyline, if you’re rich, if you’re poor, if you’re still trapped in poverty, you look across that vista and think beyond the circumstances in your household and know that you too can be a part of one of the greatest cities in the world,” Ellis said.
How the funding came together
The $30 million price tag was assembled through a combination of public funding and private philanthropy.
Commissioner Ellis, state Rep. Alma Allen, and Congressman Al Green helped secure $22 million in public dollars, while the Houston Parks Board raised an additional $8 million in private donations.
Trees For Houston contributed roughly $250,000 worth of trees to the project, a donation the organization’s executive director, Barry Ward, described as both a practical necessity and a point of pride.
Flood control meets community amenity
The Hill at Sims Park was built atop and around existing Harris County Flood Control infrastructure, a stormwater detention basin capable of holding 325 million gallons of water. Harris County Flood Control District Director Tina Petersen noted that the basin reduces flood risk for more than 35,000 homes.
“Hill at Sims reflects how strategic partnerships can elevate infrastructure projects beyond their primary purpose,” Petersen said in a statement. “While the Harris County Flood Control District’s mission is centered on delivering flood mitigation infrastructure, we welcome opportunities to collaborate with partners who bring expertise in parks, trails, and recreation to create added value for the communities we serve.”
Houston Parks Board President and CEO Justin Schultz called the dual-purpose design a model for urban park development.
State Rep. Alma Allen, who is retiring from the Legislature after 20 years, was honored with a pedestrian bridge named in her honor, the Dr. Alma Allen Bridge, which connects the park to the Sims Bayou Greenway and provides access to roughly 20 miles of trails.
Joseph Armstrong, who has lived in the neighborhood for 50 years and attended Grimes Elementary and Woodson Middle School just up the road, called the park opening a blessing.
“To have something of this magnitude, something this beautiful, in the hood where I grew up is absolutely amazing,” Armstrong said. “It’s just really great to have something like this in a Black community.”
