Updated Parks and Recreation Master Plan Adopted by Fort Collins City Council

Fort Collins City Council has unanimously adopted an updated Parks & Recreation Master Plan on Tuesday, January 19, after over a year of extensive staff, community, and stakeholder participation.

The updated master plan has been designed as a visionary and pragmatic document that will guide the future of the City’s Parks, Park Planning & Development, and Recreation departments. The plan showcases the role that parks and recreation play within the overall landscape of Fort Collins.

“We know the high value that parks and recreation bring to our community,” said Kurt Friesen, Director of Park Planning & Development, who also served as a staff lead on the project. “From the people who casually visit parks with their grandchildren, to the regulars who frequent classes at a recreation facility, or the thousands of trails users who pass through on an annual basis, these services enrich lives, offering relaxation, refreshment, and recreation, and are an important component of what makes Fort Collins an amazing place to live,” Kurt said.

The Master Plan will serve as a framework that will enable staff to prioritize current and future projects, align to common goals and outcomes, and work from a set of standards for equity and consistency throughout the community. A key focus of the planning process was frequent engagement with the public in addition to staff and stakeholder groups.

Soliciting feedback and offering opportunities for input often will ensure that the final plan addresses the community’s diverse and evolving needs.

Key outcomes of the updated Master Plan are as follows:

• A new vision statement, connecting parks and recreation to a holistic vision of public space for the future
• A new system for classifying parks and recreational facilities
• Updated design guidelines for parks and recreational facilities
• Guidelines for evaluation and managing the total cost of ownership
• Assessment of current service standards and recommendations for future amenities
• Analysis of funding needs with financial recommendations for further consideration
• Recommendations for policy approaches that align with the overall plan vision

“There’s a misconception that good park and recreation systems happen overnight when in reality there is a great amount of planning, foresight, and intentionality that goes into every project we develop,” said Kurt. “This plan is exciting because it puts us at the front end of that planning process and gives us all the tools we need to move forward in co-creating not only an excellent system of public space but an exceptional one,” Kurt said.

For more information regarding the Parks & Recreation Master Plan, including where to view it in its entirety with a condensed Executive Summary, visit: ourcity.fcgov.com/ParksandRec