Emily’s Rohrer’s 5-year-old daughter used to play at Roosevelt Park “with impunity.” But now?

“She’s completely cut out of it,” Rohrer said.

The playground in Hampden received a complete, $243,300 overhaul this summer with bright colors and plastic crisscrossed with climbing ropes and a big slide that promises thrilling rides.

But for some families with young children in the neighborhood, the playground seems too challenging, even though it’s rated for toddlers as young as 2.

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That won’t be the case for long, according to city recreation and parks officials. An unusually fast redo to the playground is coming, with new equipment promised by the end of September.

Ed Wheeling, deputy director of parks and facility maintenance at the city recreation and parks department, said they want to make sure everyone is included and able to play at Roosevelt.

“We didn’t want to leave anyone out,” Wheeling said. “[The current setup] is designed for toddlers and up, we just wanted a challenging, innovative course that will stimulate kids while they’re out playing.”

By the end of September, the city will install more equipment at the playground after feedback from the community, Wheeling said. There’s enough room that the footprint won’t need to be expanded for the park to stay safe.

The new equipment is going to cost about $24,000 more.

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Doug Carlson said he lives about a quarter of a mile from the playground with his family and felt mostly OK about the new playground — but felt there wasn’t much wrong with the existing equipment, other than swings being broken.

The additional equipment coming to Roosevelt Park will include a climbable cube and an interactive piece of equipment designed like a truck. (Courtesy of Baltimore Recreation and Parks)

“What’s annoying is, it feels like with a small amount of communication this could have been something that was a big positive [for the area],” Carlson said.

The additional equipment will include smaller platforms for climbing and balancing on, a play cube and an interactive play truck, according to designs that the Recreation and Parks Department shared. Because adding the additional equipment is a “smaller project,” it won’t affect any other recreation and parks projects, a department spokesman said.

The playground at Roosevelt Park is challenging on purpose and includes many ropes but few platforms for getting onto a slide. (Ronica Edwards/The Baltimore Banner)

Rohrer said she was glad the city heard residents’ concerns and glad to hear there were changes coming to the playground. She thought it would open up the park to more kids, but still leave some children out.

“I think there’s a lot more this city can be doing in terms of accessibility and inclusion — I think that’s more of what the issue is here,” Rohrer said. “I do think more kids will be able to play on it, but it still leaves out a subsection of the community.”

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The new playground installed at Roosevelt Park is part of the city’s Rec Rollout program, in which officials are debuting new and renovated facilities and equipment across the hundreds of playgrounds and recreation centers in Baltimore.

This summer began with the refurbished Candy Stripe Park in Northwest Baltimore getting a celebratory ribbon cutting and has included at least three other ribbon cuttings, according to the city.