The Rollingwood Park Commission is in the process of developing a new park master plan and held a special meeting Feb. 23 to discuss results of a survey about priorities for the city park.
The master plan will be used as a blueprint to prioritize park projects and programs, Park Commissioner Wendi Hundley said. The master plan document will also include a section about the park’s history, fundraising efforts and maintenance requirements, she said.
“We are going to look at the stakeholder input we already gathered and the survey result to see what [residents] would like to see improved,” she said. “We have to look at the information so we can have a roadmap to implement those ideas in the future.”
Hundley said the survey was posted on the city’s website for more than a month, beginning Jan. 20, and 139 people had responded as of
Feb. 23.
Out of the survey, 81 percent of respondents stated they wanted the park to offer more activities throughout the year to bring the community together, such as designating a movie night or a day for food trucks to offer dining at the park, Hundley said.
About 34 percent of all respondents supported adding more sports facilities to the park, with 24 percent listing sports facilities as a top priority. However, 39 percent of respondents did not think additional sports facilities were important.
Hundley said numerous people listed using the running and jogging trails around the park as highlights for the area. Others listed open green space and the park’s off-leash area for dogs as draws to the park, she said.
The community was not interested in establishing ride-sharing opportunities at the park, which could have included Car-2-Go and rentable bicycles. Only 4 percent of respondents said ride-sharing opportunities were important, while 71 percent of respondents said ride-hailing options were not important.
The Feb. 23 meeting was the second special meeting regarding the master plan, and the commission will present a draft of recommendations to City Council in the coming months, Hundley said. The commission will then hold a public open house regarding the finalized master plan.
