On Monday, Plain City held a meeting with Pros Consultants, a company in Indiana, to discuss the village’s future master plan for parks and recreation. The company, who helped the City of Marysville with their parks, hopes to have the plan available this fall.
(Journal-Tribune photo by Mac Cordell)
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Plain City is hoping to have a park master plan by the end of summer.
On Monday evening, residents and village officials met with representatives from Pros Consultants, a firm in Indianapolis, IN who helped create the parks master plan for the City of Marysville, to help guide the discussion on improving parks and recreation.
“We held two focus groups, made up of residents from a variety of demographics, to get their take on the park,” said Linda Granger, director of parks and recreation for the village. “The meeting was very productive and helped us get a picture of what we have and what we need. We also talked separately with the consultants to get their take.”
Community members included residents of varying ages, business owners and representatives from the school district.
“We looked at facilities at Pastime Park, athletic areas, buildings and shelter houses, asking members of the community what they were happy with, what needed improvements and what they would like to see,” Granger said. “One thing the consultants said, and we knew this already, was that Plain City just doesn’t have enough park space.” Granger said residents were interested in seeing improvements to the buildings at the park as well as more space for sporting events.
“People had some concerns about the Steam Threshers and the campground,” she said. The village is in the process of reworking the lease agreement with the Steam Threshers Association. “There were some questions about the campground expanding and taking up too much space at the park. This isn’t the case. Campground activities will always remain in the area designated for campgrounds.”
Granger added that improving parks and recreation for a community like Plain City can be tricky because typical funding routes don’t always work.
“A lot of people ask if we look at grants and we do and get what we can,” she said. “It’s tough though because Plain City has such a high median income that we don’t always qualify for the usual grants.” She said another important reason they don’t always receive grant funding is because of the lack of a master plan.
“If you’re asking for funding, they of course want to see where and how the money will be used and so it’s crucial to get this master plan together,” she said.
The village does receive park impact fees from the incoming developments that go into parks and rec funds. Granger said M/I Homes currently pays $500 per household but that is too low, according to the consultants.
There is also a requirement to either dedicate 20% of the developed land as open green space or pay a fee. Developments can also do a combination of the two.
Granger said the village is working on a number of improvements currently and have projects in the works.
“We redid the main bathrooms three years ago and we’re looking to rehabilitate the youth building and paint some of the exteriors of buildings,” she said. “We’re looking to relocate my office since the building I’m in at the entrance is a historic building. We’re also looking at new programming and park space acquisitions. We want to expand areas like the walking trails.” The village is also looking to expand parking at the pool and will be sealing the parking lot this year.
Pros Consultants is planning to put out an online survey to get more feedback from residents and community members. That information, along with the focus groups, village budgets and other data from the community will be collected and used to create the master plan, available in September.