Cortez City Council awarded $193,000 to engineering consultancy firm Kimley-Horn for the creation of a Parks and Recreation master-plan during their regular meeting Tuesday evening.
“The intent of this master-plan is to provide a comprehensive community centered view of a long-term plan for the next 10 years that would create a system that was sustainable and realistic for us to implement,” Parks and Recreation Director Creighton Wright said before council.
The original master plan was created in 2007 with minor updates in 2013 and 2016. The 2016 priorities included creating a park at the site of the old Cortez High School, where an affordable housing development is being planned. Still, the Parks and Recreation Department does not have the funding to establish the adjacent park, Wright said.
“Since 2020 we’ve been very much in repair and addressing urgent issues,” he said.
Community members have complained about the lack of parks on the south side of town, which has two pocket parks compared to the plethora of green space like Parque de Vida and Centennial Park available on the north side. Parents and coaches came to City Council back in February to lament the condition of the South Softball Complex which lacks lighting and electricity.
“This is not a singular issue that is targeting an individual group,” Wright said at the time. “The short answer is we have not maintained our parks and recreation infrastructure for a very long time and we have not as a community come up with a plan of what we’re going to do when stuff starts to fail.”
The Parks and Recreation Department presented the master-plan as a way of determining priorities and funding availability for the various amenities in disrepair. Kimley-Horn, the selected consultant to create the plan, intends to gather community feedback and assess the financial realities for their final product, Wright said.
“The solution is that we are going to renovate and replace our infrastructure. The fact is the funding might not be available to that,” he said.
If funding isn’t available, he asked, does the city take something “offline” as a funding strategy?
“How do we address this?” he said.
Mayor Dennis Spruell asked how much money the master-plan could save the city.
“I want the public to hear the reason we spend this enormous amount of money – and it is a lot of money for some expert to come in and tell us what we need,” Spruell said, adding that the money could instead pay for one light at the South Softball Complex.
Wright clarified that he didn’t expect the plan to save money but that the good reviews and community-centered approach of the consultancy firm would help the city get the necessary community feedback and form a realistic plan without the completed plan “sitting on a shelf.”
Kimley-Horn’s approach includes creating focus groups, surveys, workshops and open houses for community members to voice their priorities, and reaching out to residents in the county and on tribal land. The primary project manager has worked on more than 30 projects in the Four Corners.
“At the end of the day, I want to provide a parks and rec system that addresses our community's needs. And the first thing I need to do is know what those needs are,” Wright said. “I have a pretty good guess, but we really need to be talking to the community to understand that.”
He said resident feedback will inform a conversation with the community to deliver it a plan the people support and that builds a parks and recreation opportunities they want to realize.
avanderveen@the-journal.com
