The city of Sugar Land is working to update a master plan for its parks, recreation and open spaces.[/caption]“The first one we ever did was in 1996, so it kind of goes about every 10 years or so,” Parks and Recreation Department Director Joe Chesser said. “Once it’s updated, it’s a multi-year process to implement it.”
City officials held a public meeting Aug. 17 seeking input from residents on what priorities they have for city parks.
Chesser said the plan is a road map for the future that would identify residents’ priorities for new park facilities as well programming and events.
Chesser said he expects the plan to be adopted toward the end of 2017. Since the last plan update in 2005, the city has made improvements to several amenities, including Settlers Way Park, Eldridge Park Trail and the T.E. Harman Center for seniors. The city also created the Pawm Springs Dog Park.
Chesser said the updates could include developing sports facilities.
“Imperial Park is primarily our girls softball complex and they’ve shown growth over the years,” Chesser said. “So one of the possibilities for the plans and one of the priorities might well be to add some additional fields there or to say renovate one of our other complexes where we have baseball or soccer.”
He said there is also interest in having facilities for adult sports leagues.
“One of the unmet needs is for some adult sports in the city, so we’ve gotten interest for adult sports that could be softball or soccer, cricket,” Chesser said. “Cricket’s another growing sport and we don’t really have a facility for that now, so we’re starting to hear from the leagues that are forming cricket that they’d like to see that.”
Chesser said he expects the first projects from the latest master plan to appear on the city’s Capital Improvement Program budget between 2018 and 2025. First the plan needs more public input and then goes to the Sugar Land Parks Art Recreation Culture and Streetscapes board, the Planning and Zoning Commission and the City Council, he said.
“We’ve got a number of parks that have a lot of undeveloped park land,” Chesser said. “We’ve got a significant amount of land along the Brazos River that is undeveloped, so we’re kind of asking what would you want to see there.”
The city is seeking public input via an online town hall survey. See www.sugarlandtx.gov/onlinetownhall to provide feedback.
