Pine Nursery Park Opened a Gate on Its East Side, and It's Adding Lights for the Short Days

"Those folks that live east of the park won't have to go all the way around to access it," Bronwen Mastro, a landscape architect with Bend Park and Recreation District, told Central Oregon Daily as the work neared completion.

That quote is the clearest summary of the latest round of work at Pine Nursery Park. For Petrosa, Pine Nursery is the park next door. It covers 159 acres, the district has built it in phases since 2006, and it ranks among Bend's busiest parks at about one million visits a year. Phase 5 changes two things that matter to anyone who arrives on foot. It adds a way in from Deschutes Market Road, and it adds lighting meant to keep the park usable after the sun goes down early.

Until now, neighbors east of the park had to go all the way around to get in. Phase 5 is meant to make it a park you can walk into after work, even in October once the light is gone.

A gate on the side that didn't have one

The park is bounded by Purcell Boulevard, Deschutes Market Road and Yeoman Road. The new pedestrian entrance is on Deschutes Market Road, and it includes its own gate into the large off-leash dog area. The pedestrian entrance and the new dog-area gates opened before the rest of the project. Central Oregon Daily reported them open while the courts and fields were still being finished.

The off-leash area covers 14 acres. The district's Phase 5 plan adds three new ways into it:

• A southeast entry from Deschutes Market Road, the one that saves east-side neighbors the trip around
• A replacement southern entry
• A southwest entry just north of the new pickleball courts

The plan also adds ADA-accessible paving from the parking lot to the lawn through the new western entry, plus drainage work at the lawn entrance. In Mastro's words, the paving runs "from the north parking lot all the way to the field."

Before you leave the off-leash area, the rule still applies: dogs need a leash everywhere in the park and on its trails outside the designated off-leash areas.

Lights tied to the park's hours

A closer entrance helps most if there's still something to do when you get there. The district says its new lighting along the improved paved perimeter path and on the ballfields "will allow for more use in fall and spring when there is less daylight." The lighting is dark-sky compliant, which fits a neighborhood that looks out at a high-desert night sky.

The district's project FAQ says the path lights run only during park hours. The park is open from 5 a.m. to 10 p.m., and parking on district property isn't allowed between 10 p.m. and 5 a.m. So the lights extend the park's evening hours without keeping it open later.

On timing, the district said in its August 24 update that new amenities were already open and the remaining pieces would be finished "by early fall." Its park page, as captured on September 25, still described the final phase as underway. If you plan an after-dark loop with the dog, check the district's Pine Nursery Park page for the path lighting's current status first.

How the 24 pickleball courts split after 3 p.m.

The Zehnder Pickleball Complex grew by eight courts to 24 in this phase. Bend Pickleball Club raised half the money for the new courts, and the district says eight courts now stay open for drop-in public play except during a few tournaments each year. The posted schedule shows how court access changes over the day:

The lights add a second split. Courts 1–8 and 17–24 have lights for evening play. The controls are manual, and the district asks players to use them only as needed before the park closes at 10 p.m. Courts 9–16 have no lights. Every court opens to the public at 3 p.m. on weekdays, but once it gets dark this fall, 16 of the 24 can still be played. All courts close for tournaments.

The fields have a short lit season this year

The ballfields got artificial-turf infields along with their new lights, and the project also added a full-size basketball court. The lit fields arrived late in the year, though. The district lists sports fields as available from March 1 through November 1, depending on weather and conditions. As of October 3, that leaves about four weeks of field season. The real test of the lighting comes next spring, when evening practices start in March in the same short daylight the district designed the lights for.

The basketball court has no field-season dates on the district's page, and the district doesn't say whether it has lights.

Other partners shaped this phase too. The district improved a storage space for the exclusive use of Oregon Adaptive Sports. Kirby Nagelhout Construction Company built the project after a competitive bid. The district puts the total at about $8 million, while Central Oregon Daily reported the Phase 5 project at $8.7 million.

The pond is the one thing that waits for spring

The fishing pond at Pine Nursery is stocked by the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife and is open to anglers of all ages. State licenses, limits and regulations apply. The new lights and gate don't change the stocking calendar. ODFW's posted schedule shows no fall 2026 stocking for Pine Nursery Pond. The next listed stocking is the week of March 22–26, 2027, with 800 legal-size trout and 75 trophy trout. ODFW lists a week rather than an exact day, and the stocking schedule can change without notice.

Seen together, the changes put the park on a new schedule this fall:

1. Afternoons, Monday through Saturday: courts 17–24 are open to the public all day, and all 24 open at 3 p.m.
2. After dark: the 16 lit courts stay usable until the 10 p.m. close, the lit fields run until the season ends November 1, and the paved path gets lights once the district finishes them.
3. Any time the park is open: the Deschutes Market Road gate puts the off-leash area within walking distance for east-side neighbors, with no trip around.
4. Late March 2027: the pond gets its next stocking.

For anyone coming in from Deschutes Market Road, the lit courts and fields keep the park usable until its 10 p.m. close.

If you're weighing how much a park like Pine Nursery adds to life in Petrosa, or what a home there might be worth with the new gate and lights in place, Bend Lifestyle REALTORS® can walk you through it. Rachel and Shana know these northeast Bend streets. Book a Free Consultation & Home Valuation and we'll start with the parts of the neighborhood you use most.