When the Gillen family moved into Zionsville’s Vonterra neighborhood in late 2019, they had heard that it was adjacent to the site of a future park.
They joined Zionsville officials and other community members on May 20 for a ribbon cutting to celebrate the grand opening of Overley-Worman Park, an amenity that has turned out to be much more than the Gillens were expecting.
“We had no idea it was going to be anything like this. When we built the house, they told us there were going to be trails. This far exceeded our expectations,” Andrea Gillen said. “It’s extremely exciting for the Town of Zionsville and our neighborhood.”
The 53-acre park is nestled between Vonterra and Eagle Creek and is accessible from the Big Four Rail Trail and a parking lot south of Godello Circle. Some elements are still under construction, but when complete it will have a fishing pier, pond boardwalk, playground, 18-hole disc golf course, mountain bike trails and paved and natural walking trails, including one that spirals down from a 200-foot pedestrian bridge that connects to the Big Four Rail Trail.
“It seems like a state park,” said Hannah Gillen, who is looking forward to riding her bike through the park and connected trail systems.
Zionsville Mayor Emily Styron said that the beauty of the park can be seen in its rolling landscape and largely untouched woodland and wetland areas.
“The site was formerly a clean fill operation, so we chose to embrace the landscape and heal and restore portions of the site to a natural condition,” Styron said. “Overley-Worman Park is really the best of both worlds with spaces to participate in active adventures and also spaces to view picturesque views of Eagle Creek.”
Worman’s Clean Fill and Organic Recycling, which closed after more than 30 years in business, previously operated on the site. The former use of the land led to topography not commonly found in Boone County, which also made it unable to be developed as part of the Vonterra neighborhood. The subdivision’s developer donated the land to the town.
Construction on the park, which cost $4 million to develop, began in early 2021.
Learn more at OverleyWormanPark.com.
