15 Key Findings

New homes come with new parks in the Ellis neighborhood. 15 KEY FINDINGS

The first phase of the Master Plan Update entailed data gathering, technical analysis, and community engagement examining all aspects of Tracy’s Parks, Trails, and Recreation System. Fifteen key findings stood out and have formed the basis for the Master Plan Update’s goals, policies, and proposed park improvements and programming changes.

1. TRACY CONTINUES TO GROW

Tracy’s population is projected to grow by 48,341 between 2020 and 2040, as it is increasingly recognized for its high quality of life and location within the larger Bay Area commute shed. The population is racially and ethnically diverse and will become more so. Tracy’s median household income is significantly higher than the State’s overall, while the per capita income is lower. This suggests the prevalence of young professional families with two income earners, and extended families living under one roof.1

2. WE ARE COVERING THE BASICS

Tracy’s park system has a collection of community, neighborhood, and mini parks, providing 4.05 acres of park land per 1,000 residents— meeting its current standard of 4 acres per 1,000 and fairly typical for similarly sized cities in California. According to the statistically-valid survey conducted for the Master Plan Update, residents are most likely to visit our parks to bring children, to exercise, and to participate in sports. Households with children and with adults in their 30s are most likely to use parks. In other words, Tracy’s park system seems to be designed and programmed today in a way that meets the needs of youth and adults with small children.

1 See Citywide Parks, Recreation & Trails Master Plan Update Comprehensive Profile (January 2020) for more detail.

3. PARK SYSTEM GROWING PAINS

Tracy’s park system is beginning to feature more types of parks and public spaces to serve what has become a larger and more diverse community. This process needs to be supported by an updated park classification system, updated park definitions and standards that define how the City should invest in new parks, from downtown activated plazas, to sports complexes, to open spaces featuring natural conditions.

4. MAINTENANCE IS A TOP PRIORITY

Our park-by-park site assessment found most parks to be in fair to good condition, and community members recognize the great work of the Public Works Department's parks, sports facility and landscape maintenance team. Still, improving and maintaining existing parks was identified as a high or very high priority by nearly 4 out of 5 residents who responded to the survey. The various Landscape Maintenance Districts and Community Facilities Districts that support over half of Tracy’s parks do so at varying funding levels, resulting in inconsistency across the system. Finding a way to provide adequate and equitable funding for maintenance will be an important challenge.

5. PARKS MUST BE SAFE AND ACCESSIBLE

Safety was identified as a high priority by community members in the survey and in our engagement activities. It will be critical for Tracy to incorporate safety features into park patrol, maintenance, lighting, design and programming. Tracy's parks also need to be universally accessible; many fall short of this today.

6. NEIGHBORHOOD PARKS NEEDED

While Tracy meets its overall park acreage standard today, it falls short in the Neighborhood Parks category. Many Tracy residents do not live within a 3/4-mile walk of a Neighborhood Park, much less the more typical standard of 1/2 mile. Gaps in Neighborhood Park access should be addressed where possible, by rethinking existing parks and/or by finding new park land opportunities.

7. MAKING MINI PARKS WORK

Many Tracy neighborhoods have “mini parks” (typically less than an acre). Community members question the value of these parks, and the current Master Plan does not endorse creating more of them—but they have continued to be added. How can these parks contribute more to quality of life?

8. INTERESTING AND DIVERSE PARKS FOR ALL

Stakeholders, Parks Commissioners, and community members all communicated the desire for parks that created a better experience for a diversity of people. Parks should have areas for informal recreational use, more enriching playgrounds, and playgrounds with elements that include and invite children of all abilities.

Parks should have multi-generational appeal, and be more successful gathering places for the community. Indeed, “ensuring recreation opportunities are available for everyone” ranked among the top priorities for Tracy residents in our survey. Stakeholders talked about special events, concerts and performances as an area Tracy could focus on more to build community and keep people around on weekends.

9. EXTENDING PARK USE: EVENINGS AND SUMMERS

Community members spoke about the need for more shaded areas and more access to water, to make parks comfortable on hot summer days. More trees and shaded areas were identified as the improvement most likely to make more people use parks. More lighting in parks would also allow parks to be usable at night and in the evenings on short winter days—especially valuable in a commuting town like Tracy. Adequate and equitable funding for on-going maintenance will be an important challenge to sustain and continue the conditions/service levels of parks.

10. ENTHUSIASM FOR NATURAL AREAS

Creating open space areas and nature trails came in as a high priority of Tracy residents overall in the survey. The proposed nature park just south of Legacy Fields and the preserved open spaces proposed as part of the Tracy Hills and Cordes Ranch specific plans can become a vital new element of the parks and recreation picture in Tracy.

Water helps to make parks comfortable on hot summer days.

11. A TRAIL SYSTEM WOULD BE HIGHLY VALUED

Stakeholders showed a strong interest in developing a network of multiuse trails in Tracy, noting the value of trails for everyone from casual walkers to high school crosscountry teams to people of all ages who could use trails as a healthy transportation option.

12. MEETING OUR RECREATION FACILITY NEEDS

Tracy’s demographic profile indicates a high “market potential index” for sports and fitness activities across the board, including for such core, high-participation sports as basketball, soccer and baseball. Tracy’s planned aquatics center, the planned multigenerational recreation center, and expansion of Legacy Fields appear justified based on projected need. The current standards also show a need for dog parks, community gardens, tennis courts, large group picnic shelters, disc golf, environmental education, and soft-surfaced paths. The Master Plan Update should revisit these standards and direct resources to recreation facilities that are most needed.

Connecting neighborhoods and parks with trails is a high priority for Tracy residents.

13. RECREATION PROGRAM REFRESH

Tracy offers a good mix of recreation programs in a range of core program areas that will be defined in the Master Plan Update. Our findings suggest that programs in the “saturated” or “decline” stage of their lifecycle are somewhat overrepresented. This is an opportunity for the Department to refresh its program offerings. Expanding recreation and activity programs for teens was the highest programming priority according to the survey, echoing themes we heard from stakeholders – but programs and activities for kids, seniors and adults were also broadly supported.

14. THINKING STRATEGICALLY ABOUT SERVICES

With the Master Plan Update, the Department has begun the process of classifying its services according to a pyramid with “essential” services at its base, “important” ones in the middle, and “value added” services at the top.

Tracy can align its cost recovery goals and pricing strategy to support this, so that Department resources are focused on “essential” programs, while “value added” programs can be expected to recover more of their costs with user fees.

15. MULTIPLE SUSTAINABILITY BENEFITS

Tracy’s parks feature mainly planted native and ornamental trees and shrubs as well as turf grass; they do not support any rare or endangered plant species, and most wildlife species in parks are those that have adapted to human-modified habitats. Still, there are “special status” (i.e., rare or endangered) animals that occur in the vicinity of Tracy and which could make use of parks and open spaces. Further, we have gained awareness of the multiple ecological benefits that parks can offer: by providing suitable habitat, but also by using low-water-use plants, promoting stormwater infiltration and groundwater recharge, and cooling the air. Tracy has the opportunity to preserve and enhance natural environments in future parks, and employ ecological strategies in the design and maintenance of existing parks.

Civic Center Plaza