Orange Township: Trustees planning long term on parks, rec, trails development
Orange Township's trustees on Aug. 3 adopted a master plan to guide development of its parks, recreation and trails over the next 10 years.
The plan was described at the trustees' meeting by Keith Rodenhauser, senior planner with Brandstetter Carroll Inc., which has offices in Ohio, Kentucky and Texas.
Trustee Erica Fouss told ThisWeek the plan would be used to frame the township's future parks development and improvements.
"It's not a project-specific document, so it didn't provide us with a list of items that will be completed in a specific order at a specific time," she said. "It did provide us with overall recommended goals that we should endeavor to use as we make future decisions in regards to our parks. This plan will help us prioritize upcoming projects and is an essential guide for our growing community."
Implementation of the plan is expected to begin with a series of initial steps, trustee Ben Grumbles told ThisWeek.
"Next steps will be a collaborative effort between the board, fiscal office and parks-operations director to align our financial resources with the 10-year plan," he said. "The plan provided for estimated costs of improvements to our community.
“We will simply leverage resident feedback, collaborate on various options and come up with a ranking system to get the most bang for our buck. Essentially, we are looking to develop a dynamic project timeline and will select, by park, what our attainable goals are over the next 10 years for each."
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Trustee Lisa Knapp told ThisWeek she's excited about completion of the parks master plan, which has been a long time in coming.
"I was happy to see such a high participation rate from the public and feel confident that it reflects the overall opinions on the types of recreational amenities our residents really want," Knapp said. "That said, it is a tall order and we have our work cut out for us. Our park growth has been stagnant for years."
The parks plan will bring no tax increase over the near term, Fouss said.
"The trustees have approved a five-year renewal levy for parks, so there will be no increase to the taxpayers at this time," she said. "We are excited that we did just approve $1.2 million for the construction of North Road Park, phase 3. This phase will see restrooms and a shelter added to this park, which is something that our community has been looking forward to for a long time."
Other parks funding sources are possible, Grumbles said.
"We have additional resources we expect to start seeing from economic development and partnerships developed over the year prior,” he said. “I expect they will also contribute to township improvement in our parks and trails system but unsure at this point how much or specific timing.
“Another area we are looking to improve, as mentioned during the meeting, is partnerships with other agencies. We often uncover specific grant money and ways we can work cross-entity to improve our collective communities."
The plan lists several overall goals, including aligning offerings with community needs, upgrading the system to ensure continued quality, strengthening fiscal responsibility and sustainability, preparing for future development and responding to changes in the community.
The plan said community input was gathered from 400 statistically valid surveys, 1,209 web surveys and an open-house workshop, with 17 stakeholder groups engaged.
The plan also lists broad recommendations, including these:
Seeking opportunities for new parks in underserved areas
Developing new features, such as outdoor fitness equipment, pickleball courts, disc golf and an amphitheater and a splash pad
Expanding capacity at athletics fields, including lighting and artificial turf
Adding and expanding support features throughout the park system, including restrooms, shade, seating and landscaping
Improving ADA accessibility
Adding and connecting trails
Establishing an easy-to-understand cost-recovery and pricing plan for all services offered
Using the township's newly hired events and communications coordinator to develop township-branded community events and programs
Collaborating with other agencies
Considering alternate funding methods, such as creating a parks foundation
The township's population has tripled in the past 20 years, and 86% of its households reported visiting parks in the past two years, the plan said.
According to the Delaware County Regional Planning Commission's Census 2020 dashboard, the township's population is 30,516.
Full implementation of the plan might be expedited by other changes, Knapp said.
"I also think it will be 100% necessary to create as soon as possible a new parks board with five to seven dedicated and collaborative members who will help us bring this plan to fruition,” she said. “We've had such a huge response to the plan, and several individuals have come forward and volunteered to assist. I'm hoping to move forward as soon as possible. We'll also need to create a specific time frame for each of the projects, as well as create a corresponding budget and raise additional funds," she said.
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This article originally appeared on ThisWeek: Orange Township planning long term on parks, rec, trails development
