Your Guide to Beverly Park Fall Events in Beverly Hills, MI

"The work with the DNR to comply with the terms of that $500K grant slowed the installation, but Council felt that maximizing outside dollars to offset the cost to Village residents was a fair trade for the delay." Village President John George wrote that in an email to C&G Newspapers in August, and it explains why the fence at Beverly Park, 18801 Beverly Road, has stayed up longer than expected.

The playground was supposed to open at the end of August. As of September, the Village said it would open "soon." The grant money behind that delay also changed what the Village is building. Read this fall's calendar with that in mind and the events line up around the same thing as the new play area: the trees around it.

The Trade Behind the Wait

The Village Council first approved the playground at a bid of $686,000, and the Village was going to pay the whole amount. After that approval, Beverly Hills won a $500,000 SPARK grant from the Michigan Department of Natural Resources and another $100,000 from Oakland County. The final bid award was $658,513.

Set against the final bid, the two grants come within about $58,500 of the full cost. The price was paperwork. Meeting the DNR's grant terms slowed the installation, and the Council decided the lower local cost was worth waiting for.

The latest update came in the Village's Fall/Winter 2026 issue of The Villager, which reports project status as of September 2026. It said the contractor was installing turf as one of the last steps before opening. No public notice of an opening has appeared since then, so the Village of Beverly Hills website is the place to check before promising anyone a trip to the slides.

What the Extra Money Changed

The grants did more than lower the bill. The original plan used turf only in part of the play area and kept mulch around the edges. According to George, the grant funding let the Village drop the mulch entirely and use more turf, "which will make for a cleaner, more accessible play area with less maintenance."

The Village is also adding accessible parking spaces along Beverly Road so people with mobility challenges can get to the play space more easily. The Villager lists a new fence along with the playground among the Village's major investments this fiscal year.

The equipment comes from Landscape Structures. Village Manager Warren Rothe described the design goal plainly: "It was really designed to be more nature-y, to kind of blend in more with the natural, woodsy setting of the park." George said the VBH Parks Board ran an extensive public engagement effort during design, focused on accessibility and on the features families asked for, and that the pieces were chosen for durability and warranty too.

So the new play area was designed to blend into the trees. The Village's fall programming at the park is built around those same trees.

The Woods After Dark

Halloween Hoot is set for Saturday, October 24, 2026, from 6 to 8 p.m. at Beverly Park. Children in costume trick-or-treat along the Hoot Trail through the woods, and each child must have an adult along. The Villager's invitation is to put on a costume and "grab your flashlights." At 6 p.m. in late October, the trail is mostly dark, which is why flashlights make the list.

The Hoot is a Beverly Hills Parks & Recreation event, and it depends on volunteers. Last October, C&G reported that a Parks and Recreation Board member had 27 treat stations lined up along the trail, and the Village was in its second year of collecting candy donations for the event. For 2026, the Village asks anyone interested in sponsoring or volunteering to email [email protected].

The trail runs through the same woods the new playground was designed to match. If the playground opens before the 24th, families on the Hoot Trail will walk past it.

Seedlings in November

Two weeks after the Hoot, the Village is adding to those woods. Rooted in Beverly, a community tree planting, meets at Beverly Park on Sunday, November 8, 2026, at 9 a.m., and participants will put new seedlings in the ground.

On the Village calendar, these two events form one autumn story. In October the woods host a night event. In November residents plant trees the next generation of Hoot Trail walkers will pass. The Villager uses the same long view for the playground, calling it a place for "today's kids and future generations to make memories of their own."

The same newsletter lists Beverly Green and Riverside Park among this year's improvement projects but doesn't describe the work at either one.

One Date to Confirm

The Villager also lists Cocoa and Lights in the Park at the Beverly Park Pavilion, with music and warm refreshments "as we celebrate the start of the season." It prints the date as Friday, October 9, 2026, at 6 p.m. The Village's Beverly Park events page doesn't list it right now, and an event with lights and cocoa that is billed as the start of a season could just as easily belong in December. With the printed date only two days away, a quick call to the Village office at 248-646-6404 will settle it.

Your Own Trees Have Deadlines Too

While the Village adds trees at Beverly Park, the fall cleanup in residents' own yards has fixed dates. The Village has two curbside chipping weeks left in 2026:

1. The week of October 26, two days after the Hoot.
2. The week of November 16, pushed to the third week of the month because of Thanksgiving.

Branches go to the curb on your regular trash day during the scheduled week, and crews collect and chip them sometime that week. The program rules are specific:

• Size: Branches must be 2 to 6 inches in diameter.
• Stacking: Stack them without bundling, with the cut ends facing the same direction and parallel to the curb.
• Smaller material: Twigs and branches under 2 inches go in a yard waste bag or container, cut to 4 feet or shorter, and must be at the curb by 7 a.m. on trash day.
• Larger limbs: Anything over 6 inches in diameter has to be disposed of privately.

Leaves follow their own rules. Code Enforcement Officer Matthew Young's "Code Corner" in the same issue reminds residents that Village code forbids raking leaves into the street. Lawn companies can't leave them there for later pickup either. Leaves can stay on the lawn only if they are chopped up and spread like mulch. The same column covers winter. Property owners must keep the sidewalk next to their property clear of ice and snow, and if they don't, the Village may clear it and bill the cost to the property.

Here is the season at Beverly Park and on the curb, in order:

The playground has no confirmed date yet. When it opens, it will have full turf instead of mulch, accessible parking on Beverly Road, and equipment chosen to blend into the trees. Grants paid for nearly all of it.

Some families have walked the Hoot Trail for decades, first with their own children and later with grandchildren. When a family like that starts thinking about a smaller home, the decision is rarely only about the house. Christine Hossack works with longtime Beverly Hills homeowners and their adult children on that kind of move. She plans the timing, coordinates the vendors, and keeps the process discreet and calm. Let's Connect.

This article is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Consult a qualified professional about your situation.