PART TWO - ACTION PLAN

VI    CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

A.    Conclusions

1. The Park System Overall, the system is in good condition. Land areas are adequate in size and location to meet most present needs. There is a good balance between places for active and passive recreation. Additions since 1979, including Winkler Park, Hilton Park, Highland Center, St. Stephen Park, Neill Clark Park, Southside Heights and new land areas at Sandy Pines, Stanford and Kiwanis Parks great enhance the system and provide opportunities for future development.

The system is well-maintained, but minor upgrades are needed in several areas to improve appearance or functions.

Spaces for active recreation such as athletic fields are adequate to meet immediate needs; however additional practice areas are needed and an additional neighborhood park is needed in the Northeast quadrant of the City to serve newly annexed areas. Stanford Park should be developed as a District Park.

Additional opportunities for walking should be provided in several locations, including Brown-Penn, Neill Clark, Kiwanis and Stanford Parks.

Better access to Lake Hickory should be provided at the old police range. New facilities should be built for boat launching, parking and picnicking. The boat launching facilities at Geitner Park should be closed.

A large group picnic facility seating 200 people should be built at Winkler Park. Some additional parking and toilet facilities will also be required.

2.    Swimming Opportunities Swimming opportunities are inadequate. The neighborhood pools at Ridgeview and George Ivey are antiquated and difficult to staff and maintain. Attendance at these pools hardly justifies their continuing operation if other opportunities are available. The trend in public recreation is away from small neighborhood pools and towards large, district-serving facilities.

It is recommended that the City construct a district-serving outdoor pool at Stanford Park, and that neighborhood groups be bussed to the site if required.

3.    Indoor Facilities The Department operates indoor facilities at Brown-Penn, Ridgeview, Highland, Neill Clark and Westmont. All of these centers are old school sites. More than half of the total square footage of these centers is located in the southern part of town where only 27% of the population resides. As with swimming pools, there is a trend to consolidate smaller neighborhood facilities into more efficient district-serving facilities.

Ridgeview Center should be studied carefully. Attendance at this center has declined by 22% in the past five years, and the center now serves fewer than 40 persons per day. The possibility of consolidating Ridgeview and Brown-Penn programs should be explored. This would allow a concentration of staff and financial resources at one location rather than two.

Further consolidation should take place by constructing a new district-serving recreation center at Stanford Park to meet both present and future needs. This will permit the phasing out of Highland Center and lead to a higher level of service for all city residents.

4.    District Park  Stanford Park is ideally located to serve as a district park. Recent land acquisitions have almost doubled the size of this park, and new thoroughfare plans make the area readily accessible. More than 90% of the City's population lives within 2.5 miles of the site. This 2.5 mile radius also includes large areas in the Northeast quadrant of the City which will be subject to future annexation.

Building on the basic facilities within the park, functions should be expanded to include:

5.    Departmental Offices The existing offices are poorly located and poorly designed. A new building should be built at Stanford Park (apart from the Recreation Center) to house these offices.

6.    Maintenance Areas The present maintenance facility is inadequate and must be replaced. The old public works area, while in need of renovation, can be adapted at a cost smaller than building a new space. This area is well located to serve this function.

7.    Cooperative Efforts The Department should take a lead role in efforts to coordinate recreation programs throughout the area. The YMCA, the schools, County government and groups such as BLAST Soccer and Arts Council all offer opportunities for joint planning, as do other recreation systems in the Unifour area.

A Recreation Coordinating Council should be formed by the Department. All agencies conducting recreation programs should be invited to regularly scheduled meetings.

8.    Soccer Complex Interest in soccer continues to grow rapidly among all age groups. There is a regional need for a major soccer complex. While the City should not be solely responsible for this project, city residents (along with the region) would benefit greatly from it. The complex should consist of 10-12 fields and ancillary facilities (clubhouse, toilets, concessions, parking, picnic areas, etc.), and would require 25-40 acres of topographically suitable land.

Ideally, the Complex would be funded with a combination of public and private funds, with each governmental unit and interest group contributing to both capital and operating costs.

Responsibility for developing and operating the facility could be given to a foundation or to a separate managing authority.

9.    Passive Recreation Geitner, City, Winkler and Hilton Parks form the basis of the passive recreation system. A bikeway program connecting City Park to Hilton Park is being constructed. There are few opportunities to link other parks into a greenway system, however efforts should continue to extend the bike way - greenway program, and especially in the vicinity of Neill Clark Park.

The Cloninger Mill property should be made accessible by developing a parking area and trail system.

The seven acre Grayfield property should be reserved for future passive use.

The Caldwell County site near MDI should also be reserved for future use.

10. Neighborhood Facilities The City has acquired a 13 acre tract at Sandy Pines which should be developed as a neighborhood park. There is also the possibility of developing a neighborhood park jointly with the City Schools at the proposed middle school site off 29th Avenue, NE. It is likely that both of these sites will be needed within the next 10 - 15 years.