SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Sacramento city councilmembers gathered for a meeting last week that saw them approve the Sacramento Fairytale Town Expansion Project.
Previously back in September of 2018, the park expanded by adding the "Anansi's Web" to its list of play structures. Also in 2019, Fairytale Town announced its official plans to expand its parks for kids and families.
Now, $1.8 million has been granted by the State of California and distributed to the City of Sacramento for a half-acre expansion of Fairytale Town that includes a new Story Center and outdoor classroom construction projects.
"The new Story Center will be an indoor building where kids will be able to go inside and make their own original stories and write them out, illustrate them and act them out on a stage," said Kevin Smith-Fagan, executive director of Fairytale Town.
The Story Center will consist of multi-use rooms and be able to accommodate diverse program activities — from costumes and props to a tech room allowing children to produce story recordings and videos. It will also house exhibits pertaining to reading, writing, and storytelling.
In addition, the park plans on having a welcome center, but they still need to come up with another $1.5 million.
To continue efforts to expand, in the past week, Fairytale Town had an online auction and raised $37,000 for family and children's programs at the park.
"Ultimately, it's about bringing joy to kids in this region and fostering their imaginations and fostering their creativity," Smith-Fagan said. "It's just very gratifying to see so many people want to get involved."
Fairytale Town has been open since Aug. 29, 1959 and has been planning on expanding since then. Now, construction is underway and Smith-Fagan expects construction to be done by the end of 2022.
See expansion plan photos and key features HERE.
WATCH MORE ON ABC10: Rocklin couple gets 98M views on TikTok, contemplate online career