Town staff will draft a plan with the park committee, which is a standing committee appointed by Town Council, before bringing the proposed plan to council for consideration, Director of Communications and Marketing Jessica Sommer said.
“If it does nothing but state to developers that this is a priority and this is a commitment that the council and [Planning and Zoning] and every staff is all on the same page with this moving forward, then maybe that helps set the standard,” council member Cynthia Hermann said.
Current situation
A workshop was held at the Planning and Zoning meeting May 7 where the commission discussed the town's current ordinance related to parks and trails.
Currently, Argyle does not have a master plan for parks and trails, though the town does have an ordinance requiring residential developments dedicate land or pay a fee that would go towards parks.
“I think there really should be a plan,” chairperson Paul Kula said. “Where’s the best place [for a park]? Where is going to be the least amount of drainage mitigation?”
The last park plan was approved with the town’s comprehensive plan in 2009, Director of Community Development Harrison Wicks said. At that time, Argyle owned no public parks or trails and had no administrative staff specifically dedicated to park planning, acquisition or operations. It was the responsibility of the town administrator, development, Planning and Zoning Committees, and economic development groups to oversee implementation of the new parks and trails plan, according to town documents.
Now, the town owns Argyle Nature Trail, which was purchased in 2023 and established the park standing committee to make recommendations related to Argyle park properties.
“I would ask that we consider suggesting to the [Town] Council that they consider having parks and having it as a part of that master plan process [or] comprehensive plan process [and] look at what areas might be useful for parks,” commissioner Michael Udovic said.
This master plan could include pinpointing locations in Argyle where future parks and trails could go and revising the park dedication fee that residential developments must pay to the town.
Some context
The current town ordinance related to park and trail development requires that all residential developments must dedicate at least one acre of land for public park purposes for every 40 lots included in the development. If a residential development has less than 40 lots, then the developer must pay a fee instead of dedicating park land.
Additionally, if a developer does not want to dedicate a piece of land for park use, they can instead pay a fee of $1,000, which the town can spend on any park projects as long as it is beneficial to the residential development, according to town documents.
The fees collected for park use must be spent within ten years of when it was collected, otherwise the funds will return to the developer, Wicks said. The town has collected fees for large residential projects over the past ten years including Waterbrook, 5T Ranch, Argyle Lakes and The Oaks of Argyle, he said.
“We’re probably getting up to ten years from when we first collected those park dedication fees so it would be a good time right now to look back and [ask] when did we collect those park dedication fees,” Wicks said.
Looking ahead
The parks committee will discuss a plan for future park development with town staff in June and bring it forward for town council approval.
The town will also kick off a fee study later this year, which will include looking at the park dedication fee to see if the town needs to increase that fee, Wicks said.
Additionally, plans are underway for a veteran's memorial area to be included in the Argyle Nature Trail. The initial concept plan slightly resembles Highland Village's Veteran's Memorial but will be revised by a committee that the town plans to form, which will include resident veterans to help bring the vision to life, Sommer added.
