It’s fitting that a new park just a block from the tracks leading to Union Station has a boxcar. The feature is just one aspect of NoMa’s initial design for an empty lot that is set to become a new 8,400 square-foot public space in as little as a year.

Located at the corner of Third and L streets NE, the space dubbed “Swampoodle II” is planned as a sibling to Swampoodle Park, which opened across the street in 2018. In addition to the boxcar for future programming — think a box for small performances, a pop-up eatery, or storage — the preliminary plans include an amphitheatre-like main entrance and a central oval where toddlers could play or residents do yoga all surrounded by a periphery of greenery.

“We feel like this is going to be a gem right across the street from the original Swampoodle,” said Nick Kushner, a capital projects planning and design officer at the D.C. Department of Parks and Recreation who is a partner on the park, at a virtual community meeting Monday night.

Swampoodle II — a working name until the community can select something permanent — is the latest in the NoMa Parks Foundation’s efforts to add green spaces to the growing Northeast neighborhood. A partnership between the NoMa BID and the District, the foundation has built Swampoodle and Alethia Tanner parks, as well as brought artistic lighting installations to underpasses on L and M streets NE. The D.C. government kicked in $50 million to add green space in the area, which was zoned without parks and is now one of the denser neighborhoods in the city.

NoMa bought the land for Swampoodle II for $3.4 million in September and the park is set to open by next April.

Local landscape architecture firm Lee and Associates’ design for Swampoodle II emphasizes a mix of active and passive uses. Where Swampoodle is dominated by a dog park and modern-looking Walholla jungle gym, the new space has spaces that can flex for a variety of uses: There’s a green oval surrounded by benches where people can sit or kids can run around, as well as a smaller concrete space for community art or performance activities.

Participants and residents at Monday’s virtual community meeting had the chance to share their responses to the park’s design. Of the responses that were shared, most participants liked the boxcar, and the mix of surfaces in the central oval proposed for Swampoodle II. Questions focused on the connection — or lack thereof — between the new park and Swampoodle across the street, and the apparent lack of shade.

“Any chance we can connect the two parks with a fun pedestrian overpass or, hell, underpass?” asked one participant. L Street NE separates the two parks.

NoMa Parks president Robin-Eve Jasper, who also led the NoMa BID until February, said that while neither an overpass or underpass is likely, the foundation is discussing expanded crosswalks or a potential mid-block crossing between the two parks with the District Department of Transportation. In addition, closing the 200 block of L Street NE between the parks once the new space opens is on the table, she added.

Residents’ other repeated concern was shade. Several participants asked about trees or other awnings that could cover the space, which receives direct sunlight for most of the day throughout the year. Lee and Associates’ plan calls for planting numerous trees, including crape myrtles, along the perimeter of the park and on the northern end of the oval. It also includes a magnolia tree trained to grow up a trellis along the northern wall — otherwise known as a “magnolia espalier” — and a vertical screen where vines and plants can grow that mimics the Walholla across the street along the streetside perimeter.

“When parks are built — and the young trees are there — they look small, and it may look like the park itself may dwarf the trees,” said Jasper. “But over time, these trees will grow and thrive” bringing a shade canopy and a sense of green to the space.

NoMa Parks has an ambitious timeline for Swampoodle II. The foundation hopes to open the park by April 2022, giving it just a year to finalize the design, secure permits, select a name, and actually build the space. This will require they “move forward very deliberately,” said Jasper.

The foundation has missed its past opening targets. Swampoodle was scheduled to open in late 2017 but delayed a year to November 2018. Tanner, which opened last summer, was about six months late. In both cases, NoMa Parks attributed the delays to lessons learned both during permitting and construction.