KINGSBURG – Planning for the future isn’t always a walk in the park, but more than a year of data collection and analysis has provided a clearer vision of the next decade for Kingsburg’s facilities.
On May 6, the Kingsburg City Council unanimously adopted the Parks and Recreation Master Plan, which provides a 10-year framework for park facility goals and priorities. Drafted in large part by the Sustainable Park and Recreation Community Initiative (SPARCI) at Fresno State, the plan identified some of the city’s current strengths, while highlighting areas of opportunity to consider in the coming years.
“I just drove around and visited most of them before this meeting,” said Samuel Lankford, of Fresno State, during the item’s presentation. “There are people out there right now enjoying your parks, and that’s nice to see.”
Lankford gave the council a general overview of the 120-page document, sharing key insights that arose from more than 600 survey responses and other community outreach efforts. According to the survey results, 90% of residents view parks as “very” or “extremely” important to quality of life, and 92% believe that parks improve quality of life.
Looking at the city’s current park offerings, Lankford cited Memorial Park, Downtown Park, Kingsburg Dog Park and Crandell Swim Complex as “key destinations and gathering places” for residents.
When asked to rate their satisfaction with park facilities, surveyed residents gave an average rating of 3.44 out of 5, with cleanliness, safety and accessibility receiving relatively high ratings. However, only 24% of respondents were “very satisfied” with restroom availability, and only 23% were satisfied with the variety of amenities.
Lankford noted that “amenities” is a very general description that would need to be explored further, but said that he imagines respondents’ use of “amenities” to mean features like benches and shade structures.
Delving into potential areas of improvement, Lankford made reference to the current National Recreation Park Association standard of 3 acres of park space per 1,000 residents in California. Currently, Kingsburg sits at about 2.3 acres per 1,000 residents, but Lankford clarified that the standard isn’t mandatory.
“It’s a guideline, not a requirement, but it’s something to think about,” Lankford said to the council.
He then pointed to the southeastern part of the city as having some uneven park distribution, and said that if the area were to continue to grow, that could be an opportunity for the city to implement more green space.
Other areas of improvement included a lack of Class 4 protected bike lanes, a lack of restrooms and shaded areas in some areas, limited trail connectivity in Memorial Park and aging infrastructure.
According to the survey responses, some desired features that residents would like to see include: 66% of residents who would welcome additional walking and bike trails, 53% who would welcome splash pads, around 42% for sports courts and nature observation areas, 33% for community gardens and 32% for outdoor fitness equipment.
With regard to park programming, 63% of respondents desire more family-friendly events, and 55% want more adult fitness classes.
With all of this data in consideration, Lankford provided some overarching goals for Kingsburg parks, which included all-ages-and-abilities programming, drought resilient design for newer facilities, regional trail connectivity with other communities and more.
To measure success while working toward these goals, Lankford suggested looking into “smart park technologies,” which could include the creation of a data dashboard that details usage and demographics of each park and trail.
In closing his presentation, Lankford noted to the council that with the adoption of this master plan, the city now qualifies for grant support and aid through California State Parks, which could help meet some of the goals outlined in the plan.
During the council’s comments, Councilmember Laura North expressed her wish to look deeper into community responses that requested better accessibility. Her hope is to determine whether the community’s emphasis is more on safe equipment for children with special needs, or walkways for seniors and those with disabilities.
“I know that we need both, but I’m just wondering what the public wanted more, because that could be a real key thing for us to determine the design,” said North in her comments.
Lankford responded and said that he could look further into the data and bring it back for consideration.
After giving thanks to Lankford and the team, the council quickly took their vote to approve and adopt the Parks and Recreation Master Plan.
