City of Pacific Parks and Recreation Master Plan October 2020 Planning Design Studio City of Pacific Parks & Recreation Master Plan I Acknowledgments Pacific Officials, Staff and Citizens Steve Myers, Mayor of Pacific Steve Roth, City Administrator Pacific Board of Alderman Pacific Park Board Planning Design Studio Scott Emmelkamp, PLA, ASLA, LEED AP Scot Talbert, PLA Jonathan Corbett, PLA, LEED AP BD+C Heather Brown, Urban Designer This Page: Liberty Field Park Cover: Blackburn Park City of Pacific Parks & Recreation Master Plan II TABLE OF CONTENTS Section 1 - Executive Summary 1 Section 2 - Introduction 7 • Purpose of the Plan • The Park Master Planning Process • Document Organization Section 3 - Data Collection 11 • Introduction • Community Overview • Community Input • Previous Studies Section 4 - Analysis 31 • Introduction • Park Land Needs Analysis • Park Land Distribution Analysis • Recreation Facilities Inventory Analysis • Park Summaries Section 5 - Concepts and Master Plan 39 • Master Plan Process & Community Recreation Vision • Concept Development Process • Public Input on Draft Recommendations • Program Statement • Master Plan Recommendations • Implementation Strategies • Potential Funding Options • Action Items Appendix 1 - Park Assessment Report Appendix 2 - Needs Assessment Survey Results Appendix 3 - Draft Recommendations Survey Results Appendix 4 - Public Meeting Notes City of Pacific Parks & Recreation Master Plan III Adam’s Garden Jensen’s Point City of Pacific Parks & Recreation Master Plan IV SECTION 1 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Community City of Pacific Parks & Recreation Master Plan Park 1 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY City of Pacific Parks & Recreation Master Plan PROJECT OVERVIEW DATA COLLECTION The City of Pacific, Missouri embarked on The first phase, Data Collection, involved a community-driven Parks and Recreation a broad collection of information on the Master Plan in December of 2019. The existing conditions of Pacific’s parks and goal of the master plan was to guide the community context of the City of Pacific. development of Pacific’s parks and During this phase, the existing conditions recreation programs and facilities over the of all of Pacific’s parks were assessed by next decade. Strategically identifying and both the planning team and City of Pacific prioritizing projects allows the City to make staff. Park land, greenways, trails and other the best use of available funds in order to recreation opportunities available in the meet recreational goals. In a community- area immediately surrounding Pacific were driven master plan, public input is a critical inventoried. GIS data was used to analyze component at every step of the planning flood plains around the City of Pacific and process, ensuring that the plan is tailored their effect on Pacific’s park land. to the needs and desires of Pacific’s unique community. Demographic information of the City was analyzed to give the planning team an A parks and recreation master plan idea of the community character and to is a different initiative from a city- collect information relevant to recreation wide comprehensive plan. A city-wide programming and park development. The comprehensive plan establishes public planning team reached out to several policies on transportation, utilities, land organizations that use Pacific Parks use, recreation and housing and occur over regularly to ask for input and suggestions a longer time frame. Parks and recreation for the master plan. Previous studies master plans focus on planning the physical that been conducted were reviewed for structure of a City’s parks and recreational information that could be relevant to the facilities and recreational programming, planning process. These included a Pacific creating tangible results in expanded Community Park Pool Audit Report prepared programming, new recreation facilities, by Westport Pools in December of 2019, upgrades and improvements to existing park an architectural conditions assessment facilities. This parks and recreation master conducted of the Red Cedar Inn in 2018, planning process included four phases: a 2019 Pacific-Eureka Trail Alignment 1. Data Collection Options Master Plan, and the 2017 Pacific Comprehensive Plan. 2. Park Land and Facilities Analysis 3. Concept Development A community survey was a primary component of the Data Collection phase. 4. Master Plan Development The survey was open between January and February of 2020, with both an online and a paper version available. The survey received a total of 200 responses, 76% of which were City of Pacific Parks & Recreation Master Plan 2 from residents of Pacific, and 24% from non- and summarized the information collected resident park users. The survey collected on the existing conditions of each park public input on park utilization, satisfaction and included initial suggestions for with the current conditions of Pacific’s improvements. parks, and respondents’ perspective of the importance of parks to the community. CONCEPT DEVELOPMENT Over 85% of respondents believe it is very AND MASTER PLAN important for the City of Pacific to provide In the Concept Development phase, the high quality parks and recreation programs, planning team synthesized the information and 84% percent said that Pacific’s parks gathered in the previous phases into have a high impact on their life, property draft recommendations for each park values and health. Survey respondents and for the park system overall. These also provided input on what recreation were reviewed by the City and presented programming would be utilized by their to the community for feedback in a families, including separate questions for public meeting and a community survey. youth activities and senior adult activities. This second public survey collected 46 Finally, respondents shared which park responses between June 30 and July 18, features they utilized the most at each 2020. The survey asked respondents to park, which features are their priorities for provide feedback on conceptual plans and improvement, and they were able to write-in to rank the importance of the proposed specific suggestions for improvements. improvements for each park. Respondents were able to write-in additional comments ANALYSIS and suggestions for each park. The input received was incorporated into the The Analysis phase was composed of recommendations in the last phase, Master a park land distribution analysis and a Plan Development. park facilities analysis. These analyses compared Pacific’s recreation facilities to The Master Plan phase included creation national benchmarks based on Pacific’s of a program statement that describes the population. Pacific met or exceeded park vision for the future of the Pacific parks and land benchmarks for all park classifications recreation system. A network of pedestrian except for regional parks, which are defined and bicycle routes was proposed and by parks over 250 acres. When regional park overlayed onto a map of the City shown land within a five mile radius of Pacific was in the Master Plan section of this report. considered, the park land benchmarks were The routes were specifically chosen to exceeded for all categories. The park land link Pacific’s parks, provide a backbone of distribution analysis found that although primary corridors throughout the City and Pacific does not have a need for more parks link to the regional trail system. based on acreage, additional parks could create a more equitable distribution of park A master plan graphic was created as land. a visual summary of the master plan recommendations, shown in Figure 1-1 The park facilities analysis showed that on the following page. A conceptual plan even when recreational facilities within a and vision statement was created for each three-mile radius of Pacific, the community park as well. The specific improvement has a need for several more facilities in recommendations for each park were order to meet benchmarks. Most notably, prioritized into short-term, mid-term and there is a need for more trails and bike long-term recommendations. A master paths. The Analysis phase also consolidated plan level cost estimate was provided City of Pacific Parks & Recreation Master Plan 3 N Figure 1-1: The Pacific Parks and Recreation Master Plan Graphic for each improvement. The master plan features. The total budgetary cost range for recommendations for each park are all short-term recommendations is $175- summarized below. The final section of $650K. the Master Plan phase provided potential implementation strategies and funding Mid-term (3-6 year) recommendations sources than can be leveraged to bring the include baseball/softball field master plan vision into reality. improvements, parking lot improvements, pavilion enhancements, and updates MASTER PLAN to the dog park. Baseball/softball field RECOMMENDATIONS improvements include improving field drainage, adding accessible paths to the Community Park fields, and updating dugouts and backstops. Short-term (1-3 year) recommendations Dog park enhancements include adding include adding a paved loop trail around accessible walkways to the dog park, more the main portion of the park, replacing seating, a shade feature, water access play equipment and safety surface at and creating separate areas for large and the playground near the pool, improving small dogs. The mid-term timeframe is restrooms, adding attractively landscaped also recommended for renovating the pool. stormwater BMPs, providing trail access The budgetary cost range for mid-term