In a meeting on July 24, 2023, Plano’s city council adopted an update on the parks, recreation, trails and open space master plan that focuses on keeping up with the demand for more parkland and recreational open space as the city’s population grows.
“The City of Plano has had a Parks Master Plan since 1972 and has updated that plan every five years since,” Renee Jordan, Plano’s park planning manager told Local Profile. “Plans such as these require an update timing of 5 years.” According to the recently adopted master plan, this effort ensured the city preserved land for parks near schools and creeks that provide residents with a robust parks and recreation system.
But, since most parks in Plano are over 30 years old, the state of the infrastructure has become a concern for the department. “One huge priority for us is addressing the aging infrastructure within our parks and recreation system by renovating and updating park sites so the equipment is new and more accessible to residents,” continued Jordan.
Another goal for the new master plan revolves around accessibility. “Another priority Plano is striving for is to have all residents live within a 10 min walk to a park,” said Jordan. “At this time, about 77% of residents are within a 10-minute walk, so our focus is to get that level of service up through the acquisition of land and development of those parklands so they can be used.”
According to the master plan document, there are around 196 acres of undeveloped parkland within the city and since Plano is nearing build-out and acquisition of available and affordable land is limited, the department is focusing on developing land already available for the city. In order to meet this goal, the city aims to acquire greenbelts along Spring Creek Parkway between Windhaven and Midway Road and along White Rock Creek, complete the hike and bike Chisholm Trail south from Park Boulevard and consider the development of a new park west of Coit Road and south of Plano Parkway.
Additionally, the city is considering acquiring additional land within and nearby downtown, such as areas adjacent to the future DART stations to alleviate overcrowding and overuse of Haggard Park as well as open space near the Northwest Legacy Area, to reduce overcrowding at existing parks west of Preston Road.
But it’s not all parks and trails. The master plan was created based on residents’ input. “In early 2022, the Parks and Recreation Department began an effort to update the 2018 parks, recreation, trails & open space master plan,” said Jordan. “The public input process began in the fall of 2022 with a statistically valid survey, a community-wide survey, and a virtual open house.” The results of this input showed that, in addition to bicycling opportunities, what residents are looking for the most are recreation and aquatic centers as well as adult court space.
Additionally, the department seeks to enhance adaptive and senior programs and provide increased affordable programming for families, fostering greater community involvement.
For more information about what’s to come to Plano, take a look at the complete master plan.
In case you missed it, here’s Local Profile’s article on why Collin County has some of the best parks in North Texas.
