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Parks department previews ‘Alparks’ master plan; public engagement underway, DNR review planned
Summary
Elkhart City Parks officials said the department is about 75% through an Alparks master-plan process with extensive public engagement; the plan will be submitted to the Indiana DNR on April 15, then returned for local ratification.
Elkhart City Parks on March 3 gave the Common Council an update on the department’s Alparks master plan, reporting that the planning stage is about 75% complete and that staff will submit the plan to the Indiana Department of Natural Resources (DNR) on April 15 for conditional approval.
Jameson Czarnecki, superintendent of Elkhart City Parks, gave the presentation alongside Matthew Moyers, special projects coordinator. They said the process has included more than 22 focus-group meetings, at least 20 public engagement meetings, door-to-door outreach and a statistically valid survey distributed via the water bill. The Elkhart Park Foundation is supporting engagement with a raffle of three $50 gift cards to encourage survey responses.
Staff outlined five impact drivers that will guide project evaluation: social mobility, neighborhood impact, health and wellness, ecological resiliency and system impact. Moyers summarized benchmarking and trends from comparable cities, noting a national emphasis on durable funding, nature-play features and designing parks for year-round use. The presentation highlighted community requests for more winter programming and year-round park usability.
Next steps include finalizing goals, identifying actionable steps for a five-year horizon, a final public-review opportunity, DNR submittal on April 15 and subsequent conditional approval that will return the plan to the park board and council for ratification. Council members asked questions about program costs and whether improvements would be tied to the 2026–2029 budgets; staff said implementation would be phased and that some elements will be included across multiple budget years.
During public comment later in the meeting, resident Jay Little urged improvements at Sterling Avenue Park, citing dead or failing buffer plantings on the berm, a lack of dog-waste stations, and a request for a porta-potty and renewed berm plantings ahead of planned nearby apartment construction; staff acknowledged the issues and said ribbon-cutting and site-prep work for new playgrounds and other installations are underway at Weston Park and other sites.
