The Orange County Board of County Commissioners passed the Parks and Recreation Master Plan 2030 in a meeting Tuesday.
David Stancil, director of the Department of Environment, Agriculture, Parks and Recreation for Orange County said the first master plan was adopted in 1988 and the Orange County had its first park in 1998.
“Many things changed since 1988," Stancil said. "Including new communities and new roads."
Stancil said there are currently five county parks, one soccer center and two recreation community centers in the Orange County.
"I think that the plan can be updated, and the priority list of projects might bear some discussion," Gordon said. "It can be updated as we go along."
The new plan includes building two parks, a community center and creating natural trails and connect open spaces.
“Communities needs assessments on these," Stancil said. "We did a sample of survey. We did a survey on what they wanted to see."
The survey asked what residents enjoy when they go to the park, what facilities they enjoy, what parks they have been to, and what they want to see. It also incorporates things that people have done and what they want to do in the future.
Stancil said in the survey, residents show strong support for facilities and that people liked customer services in the parks, interesting programs, trails and a pool.
“We need to find out what it exactly means," Stancil said. "More opportunities need to be out in the nature. They want to be able to hike, to bike. They want to be active."
Stancil said based on the survey, donations and grants are universally acceptable for funding these activities and that there is strong support of using existing taxes rather than increasing them.
The county wants to improve access and promote healthy lifestyles, Stancil said.
Stancil said the department is going to connect churches, civic groups, school systems and continue informal outreach.
“We need to get a sense of what the residents tell us, particularly for the presented groups," he said.
Commissioner Barry Jacobs said creating a pool would be expensive and that other items in the plan might have a higher priority of being developed.
"It is fair to flag the swimming pool so that we can pay attention to it before we are empowering anybody to do any planning for any kind of accommodation," Jacobs said.
Stancil said the department will review suggestions from the meeting in order to update the plan.
“There are some administrative changes we can make," Stancil said. "Some other things require further updates. We will come back to the board as soon as possible with an edition."
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