Joe D. Dennis Park, the city of Westwood’s largest park, will soon get a makeover.

After years of controversy and lawsuits swirling around the park’s future, Joe D. Dennis Park is officially the second-ever recipient of the Variety KC Ten Parks Project grant.

This means a $3 million grant, part of a $30 million initiative to fund 10 fully accessible parks in the Kansas City metropolitan area, is headed to transform the park.

In a Wednesday morning press release, Mayor David Waters said the city is grateful to Variety KC and the Mallouk Foundation “for this opportunity to provide a modern, expanded, and fully accessible park for our Westwood residents.

“Parks and green spaces that can serve all build and strengthen communities, and this incredibly meaningful gift from Variety KC and the Mallouk Foundation is a wonderful recognition of the City’s efforts to meet these needs for our community,” Waters said.

Next steps for the city include budget discussions about the 20% local match, community input and design work, according to a city email newsletter announcing the grant.

Joe D. Dennis Park is the second grant recipient

The Ten Parks Project is a $30 million initiative largely funded by Peter and Veronica Mallouk and the Mallouk Foundation. (Peter Mallouk is president and CEO of Overland Park-based wealth management firm Creative Partners and also majority owner of Sporting KC.)

At the heart of the initiative is a call for all families in the Greater Kansas City metro area to live within 10 miles of a fully inclusive and accessible playground.

The Ten Parks Project is offered through Variety KC, a nonprofit that provides advocacy and access to resources for children with cognitive and/or physical disabilities.

The initiative is funding 10 all-abilities, fully accessible parks in the Kansas City metro area, with roughly $3 million grants per park.

Joe D. Dennis Park is the second park announced as a recipient, following the Roy Blunt Luminary Park in Kansas City, Missouri.

Marc Harrell, CEO and chief inclusion officer of Variety KC, said in the Wednesday press release that Joe D. Dennis Park “is exactly the type of neighborhood park we envisioned when we launched this project.”

“A community that already showed up for this space, a city that’s fully bought in, and the momentum to turn it into somewhere families come from across the region,” Harrell said.

Without the $3 million grant, the city of Westwood would be unable to significantly improve the park on its own due to budget constraints.

For City Administrator Katherine Carttar, like the mayor, the $3 million grant offers the city a welcome opportunity to upgrade its largest park.

“The generous investment of the Mallouks and partnership with Variety KC send a clear message that parks and public spaces belong to everyone,” Carttar said. “We’re grateful for this extraordinary opportunity to reimagine Joe D. Dennis Park as an inclusive and welcoming space for families in Westwood and beyond.”

How we got here

Two years ago, Joe D. Dennis Park’s future was in the midst of lawsuit.

The city had approved a developer’s 2023 plan to turn the park into an office-retail project and, in return, the developer would give the city the money to buy the old Westwood View Elementary next door at 2511 W. 51st St. The city hoped to be able to turn that site into a 3.5-acre park.

But that proposal from Karbank Real Estate Company quickly earned pushback from residents, who organized a grassroots movement and ultimately sued the city to prevent the sale from taking place without a public vote first.

Residents ultimately prevailed in court, and Westwood voters then rejected the sale of the park in a public vote in April 2025.

That rejection effectively killed the Karbank project, leaving the city without funding to buy the old school property to turn it into a park. It also left the city without additional commercial properties on the city’s tax rolls.

Westwood city officials then turned their sights to the old elementary school’s future and partnered with Hunt Midwest on a residential development.