The City of Reno’s Parks, Recreation and Open Space (PROS) Master Plan has been in the works for more than five years, according to David Pritchett, chair of the city’s Recreation and Parks Commission. There’s still more work to be done, however.
Reno City Council members last week voted to approve an amendment to an agreement with Stantec Consulting for an additional $54,397. The extra funding will allow for more plan review meetings with council and staff, more public outreach and more analysis. The total cost of the project is now just over $206,000.
“As a lot of us know, the PROS plan is a key element for any contemplated special parks district,” Pritchett said.
According to city staff, the PROS will identify current and planned park and recreation facilities, along with a funding strategy for construction and operation of the facilities for the next 20 years.
Pritchett said there is a need for a real, long term plan for recreation and special services to provide for both Reno and Sparks, and expanding the scale of the PROS plan will help to address the future of these services.
“[There needs to be] a plan to address the question: ‘You’ve got a bunch of public money, now what do we do with it?’” Pritchett said. “We need a real plan. It can’t just be ‘make everyone’s quality of life better in Reno.’ That’s cool and we do that every day but it needs to have a hard plan of what the new funding source potentially would go to.”
Pritchett said the commission supports the use of the funds to expand and look into the PROS plan, because the commission found several concerns in the current draft of the plan.
“We feel the new approach … will address those concerns, especially a lot of tidbits in there that look like it’s a policy decision without a policy venue to properly foresee that.”
Pritchett said that there were projects that are not being worked on within the proposal, such as a revamping of City Plaza with a skate rink, and verbiage that indicates some aspects of parks projects are being privatized, which is not the case.
“I think this will be the most important work the recreation and parks program at the city may do in the next five years, especially to get poised for a special district that could provide services when we’re ready to collaborate with the county and Sparks,” Pritchett said.
He anticipates the plan to be completed over the summer.
Council member Jenny Brekhus said the process for the PROS had gone on too long – through three coordinators and two parks directors.
“It’s really gone on far longer than it was ever proposed to do,” Brekhus said. “And that to me is a plan in trouble.”
Brekhus suggested holding workshops with the Reno City Council to tackle the “hot mess” of the draft. “I think it needs a bigger audience. These five meetings with us for a half hour is [sic] a joke.”
Brekhus said despite these complaints, she would be supporting the amendment.
Council approved the amendment unanimously.
