RECREATION AND AQUATIC FACILITIES

Introduction

Another key component of the Plano parks system is the recreation and aquatic facilities. City leaders and voters have shown support for recreation and aquatics through continuous investments in improving the facilities. The majority of the facilities have either been built or undergone a major renovation in the past decade. However, as Plano continues to become more diverse and trends in the wellness and recreation industry continue to evolve, there is a need to continuously evaluate recreation space and programming to ensure that the greatest number of residents are being reached and served. This chapter focuses on strategies to ‘Re-New’ Recreation Facilities within Plano. In addition to recreation and aquatic facilities, the Recreation Division also oversees the High Point Tennis Center, two municipal golf courses, the Nature and Retreat Center, Adapted Recreation, and Adult Sports. The impact of the COVID pandemic impacted operations on all facilities. This in turn affected staff and staff retention. Many options were explored to maintain connection with membership holders and the community at-large, including practices such as online classes, contact free check-ins, smaller classes, use of social media and others. Many of these practices have continued as the centers have returned to full operations.

Goals And Purpose

The purpose of this chapter is to assess the condition of the existing facilities, to understand how these facilities respond to current demands and future trends, and to develop a vision for how the facilities can keep pace with dynamic changes within the community. The overall master plan goals that are relevant to this chapter are to:

GOAL 1: Encourage healthy lifestyles by providing an appropriate mix of open space, facilities and range of activities throughout the city.

GOAL 2: Renovate, repurpose and modernize existing parks so that they offer similar elements across the city but are unique to the surrounding area.

GOAL 3: Provide for park and recreation opportunities that reflect the growing diversity of the city and allow for social interaction.

GOAL 4: Maintain high standards for planning, implementing, maintaining, and operating quality parks, recreation facilities, trails, and athletic fields.

GOAL 6: Expand communications and outreach to encourage residents to use facilities and participate in activities.

GOAL 8: Utilize environmentally and fiscally sustainable practices for developing and maintaining parks, trails, and facilities.

Citizen Input

Feedback on recreation and aquatics was gathered during the 2018 plan visioning public workshop and through the 2022 statistically-valid survey and online survey. At the open house, open-ended questions that facilitators asked meeting attendees included:

• What centers do you attend?

• What new facilities do you think are needed?

• What improvements are needed?

• What new programs do you think are needed?

In addition, individuals attending were asked to review a list of amenities and to place a vote on the top three amenities they judged to be most important. Figure 5.0 – 5.2 show the results of the facilities, improvements, and programs that meeting attendees thought were most needed.

The responses to the plan update statisticallyvalid survey provided valuable insight on what residents felt were the most pressing facility needs. Following are the most highly rated facility related needs:

• 56% Adult Recreation Center

• 36% Indoor Pool/Aquatic Center

• 35% Senior Recreation Center

• 29% Multi-generational Center

• 22% Indoor Court Facility

Since Adult Recreation and Senior Recreation overlap in terms of how people discern the two, this is obviously a highly rated amenity. These findings are also consistent with data provided from the 2018 Parks Master Plan.