Cars rumble into the gravel lot, squeezing onto the grass if the parking is full. Uneven paths stretch across the park, and a “restrooms” sign points visitors down a set of stairs and through a patch of grass.
For anyone with a mobility impairment, West Point on the Eno in northern Durham is nearly impossible to traverse, with no accessible parking or restrooms and few paved paths. Even on foot, Denise Chaplick, assistant director of park planning and project development at Durham Parks and Recreation, called the highly visited park an “ankle-buster.”
This scene is as true now as it was in 2005, when the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) found that West Point on the Eno violated the Americans with Disabilities Act. Although the DOJ called for the city of Durham to make accessibility improvements within a year where feasible, many of the park’s barriers remained for decades. More than 20 years later, the city is beginning a $5 million construction project to address those long-standing issues.
Improvements include creating a paved parking lot with 200 delineated spaces, a jump from the 96 or so spots that currently exist. There will be paved paths across the property that will lead to sites such as the McCown-Mangum House and the West Point Mill. Most of the park will be closed through the project’s expected completion in January 2027.
The project’s plans also include entirely new restrooms, after flooding from Tropical Storm Chantal last July completely submerged the existing facilities, which have been closed ever since. The existing facility has two nonaccessible restroom stalls, and the new accessible facility—located at a higher elevation near the parking lot—will have seven.
The plan converts the lower road near the river to a paved pedestrian-only path, keeping traffic to the parking lot and Roxboro Road entrance, which will have a new traffic pattern. Other paved paths will connect the parking to restrooms and the historical sites. The Riverwalk greenway in Hillsborough is currently the only accessible path along the 40-mile Eno River, said Ryan Fehrman, executive director of the conservation nonprofit Eno River Association.
“Twenty years is a long time, but it’s always a good time to do the right thing,” Fehrman said.
In 2005, the DOJ found seven citations at West Point on the Eno and issued recommendations to improve accessibility. This evaluation was part of a citywide settlement agreement, where the DOJ reviewed 24 city facilities that had undergone construction after 1992, when provisions of the Americans with Disabilities Act went into effect.
These citations included unpaved parking lots without designated accessible spaces, inaccessible ramps and entrances to the McCown-Mangum House and West Point Mill, and inaccessible restrooms.
The settlement agreement stated that the city should complete the modifications within 12 months, depending on the nature of the improvements. But it also stated that the act does not require any action that would “impose an undue financial or administrative burden.” Durham’s General Services Department said the city submitted annual progress updates to the DOJ following the settlement, and after about five years of monitoring, the DOJ determined the city had made satisfactory progress and closed its formal oversight. The Durham City Attorney’s Office told the INDY it does not have any public records indicating the DOJ ever enforced the terms of the 2005 agreement at West Point on the Eno.
The city made some accessibility improvements to the McCown-Mangum House in 2012, but many of the recommendations from 2005 were never addressed until now.
In 2017, the city authorized a report to guide future improvements in the park, which outlined the outstanding accessibility recommendations from the settlement agreement. The city initiated the design process in 2023 and allocated $4 million for construction in 2024 through its Capital Improvement Plan, which is the city’s long-term plan for major infrastructure projects. An additional $1 million comes from the city’s park budget. The project also includes a new playground and ponds to collect and drain stormwater.
Chaplick, who began her role in the city’s park system in 2025, said funding is the main barrier to improving accessibility and that West Point on the Eno has been one of many priorities. The 2005 settlement also included recommendations to improve accessibility at numerous city facilities, including the Parks and Recreation office (repairs completed in 2013), City Hall (completed in 2015), the Durham Bulls stadium (completed in 2016), and several parking lots and decks.
“I don’t think it was any sort of oversight or neglect, it was just merely a process of chipping away at that list,” Chaplick said. “We just don’t have those amount of funds available at any one time to push it all out together.”
Corye Dunn, director of public policy at Disability Rights N.C., said while she acknowledges that projects requiring public investment take time, it’s important that the city prioritize accessibility.
“People go where they feel welcomed, and if we want people with disabilities to feel like they are an included, beloved part of our community, we have to do this work prospectively,” Dunn said. “We have to assume the presence of people with disabilities in every space.”
At the Festival for the Eno, which is a celebration at the park each summer hosted by the Eno River Association, Dunn said she knows people with mobility impairments who have had to leave the festival due to a lack of accessible restrooms.
Because of the park closure and Chantal damage, this year’s festival will occur on September 12 in downtown Durham, with a free celebration at the DPlex Plaza at noon and a ticketed benefit concert at Carolina Theatre at 7:30 p.m. Due to extreme heat in the summer, Fehrman said the Eno River Association is planning to permanently move the festival to the spring.
“When you’re deliberate about trying to make your venue more accessible to people, then I think that what that means is that more people can comfortably be there,” Fehrman said. “If the weather is a little cooler, which we’re certainly hoping it will be, and the park is accessible, I think that’s a good recipe for improved, and increases in, attendance.”
Of the country’s largest 100 cities, Durham ranked last in the Trust for Public Land’s 2026 ParkScore, which evaluates cities based on park amenities, how many residents live within walking distance, investment, and equity—determined based on the percentage of people of color living within a half-mile walk of a public park. The Eno River Association asked the City Council in June for increased park investment in the budget, highlighting the park score to demonstrate a “significant gap in equitable access to parks.”
There are currently five city parks—Northgate, Walltown, East End, East Durham, and Lyon—that have been closed for two years after soil testing revealed lead contamination. All five parks are in historically Black neighborhoods where the city burned lead-containing material in its incinerators for decades.
“I would love to see over this next year, our council and mayor make a decision that they want to invest additional resources in our parks and our open space, because it is desperately needed in this community,” Fehrman said.
The city has plans to build four new playgrounds at Old Farm, River Forest, American Village, and West Point at the Eno parks. Chaplick said inclusivity and accessibility is a top priority for these projects, including elements like large sun shades to encourage people of all generations to access the park. The city also has construction underway at the Aquatic Center at Merrick-Moore Park and is in the design phase for projects at East End and Long Meadow parks—both of which have a “keen lens of accessibility,” Chaplick said, such as planned quiet rooms at the Aquatic Center to accommodate different sensory needs.
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