Gilbert residents offer plans for parks

Jun. 18—A climbing gym, more pickelball courts and an enclosed dog park are just some of the amenities that residents want to see in Gilbert.

The Parks and Recreation Department is soliciting public feedback as it develops a 10-year master plan for future services, programs and amenities as the town reaches build-out in less than a decade with a population of 330,000.

The department kicked off its community engagement campaign with the tagline "plan where you play" in April.

"It was important for us to really make sure that we really hit the community outreach component," said Parks and Recreation Director Robert Carmona, who recently gave an update to the Planning Commission. "I think why we're all here is to make sure that we can build the future that the Gilbert community wants within Parks and Recreation."

He said the department wanted to reach 60,000 residents for their feedback.

"We wanted to make sure we reached out to the Gilbert Community and met them where they were," Carmona said.

"We didn't just want to hold workshops at some of the community centers. We wanted to go out to the parks, we wanted to go out to the HOAs, we wanted to attend their events — the Little League nights, the shops around Gilbert, the restaurants.

"So we have been tirelessly visiting everywhere in Gilbert all corners of Gilbert and really bringing that community engagement to everybody."

He cited an event for kids 5-12, letting them design and build their own playground with the goal of taking "that knowledge and use it when it's time to design some of the newer playgrounds."

Residents also were mailed surveys and were able to give input on the department's online idea wall with an interactive map, sharing what they wanted and where they wanted it.

"To this date we are over 11,000 website visits," Carmona told the commissioners. "It's actually pretty fascinating to go in there and see some of the feedback so far with a lot of great ideas from the community."

According to the online input, the most sought-after amenity is pickelball courts — both indoor and outdoor.

Other asks include a botanical garden, a pollinator garden for butterflies and bees, bike park with pump tracks, splash pads, adult tennis clinics and a big shaded water park at Freestone Park.

Some atypical requests include a ceramic studio, "graffiti friends art areas," where people can bring their own paint and express themselves in a safe environment and graduated areas or inexpensive duck ramps to prevent "baby ducks drowning in park lakes."

There's also a request for a monthly or bi-weekly parents night out event where they can drop off their kids at a rec center for a couple of hours at a reasonable price while they go out on a date.

Through all those outreach efforts, "we're going to be real close to hitting that 60,000," Carmona said.

Carmona said the outreach is anticipated to conclude in mid-July.

"It's going to take us quite a bit of time to kind of put all that information together, all the data that's being collected," Carmona said, adding that the department also will look at what amenities are being offered in the private sector.

The next steps include the consultants evaluating levels of service, benchmark Parks and Recreation resources and assessing the recreation programs, including budget, staffing, needs and operations.

Carmona said the aim is to have a draft plan completed by December and presented to the town council.

Commissioner Anthony Bianchi asked how the master plan will balance the growth occurring in the south against the aging facilities in the town's northern and western areas so that the amenities are "kind of spread equally."

"That's going to be one of the challenges we face," Carmona responded. "We need to make sure that we're providing those services to everyone in Gilbert."

Carmona said that in the feedback, residents also are asking for more amenities in the south, adding, "there's been quite a balance of people who are not only asking for those southern Gilbert amenities but also saying, 'hey we have our parks like Freestone, McQueen some of those that are now approaching that 20, 30-year period.'"

"We've been able to replace things like the playgrounds but it may not have some of the newer amenities that you'd see at a newer park like Gilbert Regional or Desert Sky," he added.

"So one of the ways that we're going to look at that is taking a look at what the most requested amenities are overall from the community, taking a look at that community feedback in terms of by location and figuring out how we can best put a plan together to present to the advisory board, to town council and to the community on how we can appropriately place things in an equitable manner that kind of gives the best access to all."

Commissioner Lisa Gage wanted an update on pickelball courts at the 273-acre regional park.

"On behalf of my 10-year-old, I would like to know when are there going to be more pickleballs at Gilbert Regional Park because she's dying to learn how to play," she said. "But every time we drive by it is packed of people."

Carmona said it is one of the most requested amenities for the regional park, which currently has 16 pickleball courts. The Town debut the first of three phases for the park in 2019.

Carmona said the next round of community outreach on amenities at the regional park will be in the fall.

"We're going to go into full design of the remaining section of Gilbert Regional (next year) and that will really be our time where we'll be able to design where that could be," he said. "There are close to 400 acres of undeveloped land as well in the park system that we can be creative with."

Carmona added that what they are seeing with some of the existing amenities are their close proximity to each other.

For instance, the town's dog parks at Cosmo and Crossroads parks, are very close to each other, he said.

There's lot of interest in having a dog park at Gilbert Regional and other areas of town, he said.

"So, how do we best take what we have and maybe look for more creative usage of our space to kind of grow that," Carmona said. "It doesn't always have to mean we have to do a lot of development. It may just mean there's smaller wins sometimes down the line of just how we can reutilize some of the space we already have."