One of the designers for Williamson County’s next park, River Ranch County Park, said he expects the completed project to be on par in quality with state parks. Steven Spears, a principal with Design Workshop, presented Phase 1 of the master plan of the approximately 1,000-acre park to Commissioners Court on Jan. 12. The park is planned to be built between Leander and Liberty Hill, and will have entrances off of CR 282 and Bagdad Road, said Randy Bell, Williamson County director of parks and recreation. “It’s going to be a great park when we get it developed,” he said. The county purchased the property in 2008 with $10 million in bond funds approved by voters in 2006. Spears said he expects Phase 1 to cost about $6.5 million to $7 million; although the firm has not yet released cost estimates. The county plans to pay for the park from the $40 million park bond approved by voters in 2013. The property has 11 miles of existing trails, and 85 percent of those will be repurposed, Spears said. “Those are already used and in pretty good conditions, they will need some cleaning up and rerouting, but for the most part it’s a good set of trails,” he said. “There’s no need to spend money building what’s already been built.” The master plan includes a total of 12.5 miles of hiking trails, 7.5 miles of equestrian trails, overnight camping and primitive camping areas, pavilions, a clubhouse, park facilities and management space, and bathrooms. Spears compared the caliber of the upcoming park to Pedernales Falls, Lost Maples and Bastrop state parks. “This property is state park quality,” he said. “We believe the market for you all is of a state park magnitude even though it is a county park, and I think that’s something you should be proud of and applaud.” Spears told the commissioners the overall vision is to create a park destination that serves a wide variety of users, demographics and communities, and connects people to the natural and scenic qualities of the site. “I think that’s really important in the day and age that we’re in right now in 2016 where we’re actually seeing children less connected to nature than we’ve ever seen before,” he said.