Planning and Zoning Commission recommends Buckeye Parks and Recreation Master Plan for City Council approval

Miranda Gomez, community services director for the city of Buckeye, and Bob Weisner, deputy director of the Community Services Department, presented the draft Buckeye Parks and Recreation Master Plan and asked the Planning and Zoning Commission to recommend the plan to the City Council.

The commission voted to recommend approval to council after questions from commissioners and brief discussion about priorities and implementation.

The plan is intended as a long-range guiding document, not a capital improvement or funding plan. "The master plan is a long range plan," Miranda Gomez said during the presentation, adding that the document identifies initiatives and implementation strategies to prioritize future projects. According to Bob Weisner, outreach for the plan produced about 4,300 separate inputs, including a statistically valid mailed survey (4,000 sent; 524 completed, 13% response) and a mix of public meetings, pop-ups and social-media engagement. Weisner summarized that the outreach and analysis informed facility and program priorities included in the draft.

Commission staff and the consultant reported that key facility priorities from resident feedback include an aquatic center or pools, fitness and exercise facilities, cultural centers for visual and performing arts, outdoor-adventure amenities and indoor basketball/volleyball courts. Programming priorities highlighted hobby and interest classes, fitness programs and special events. The presenters noted local demand for youth sports: tee ball, baseball and softball registrations routinely fill and the department reported a recent spring session closed with about 120 children on waiting lists.

The staff compared Buckeye's current developed park acreage and indoor/aquatic facilities to peers. Buckeye's developed park acreage under city control was reported at about 1.09 acres per 1,000 residents; including homeowners association (HOA) parks raises the combined provision to about 5.3 acres per 1,000. The plan cites an overall target of 8 acres per 1,000 (established in the city's 2016 master plan) and a near-term city-side goal of 4 acres per 1,000. Staff recommended a stepped, roughly 30-year approach to reach the city-side target and identified parcels, land-acquisition opportunities and partnerships—including potential Bureau of Land Management leases, state trust land, and coordination with Maricopa County and flood-control authorities—that would support that strategy.

Staff also reported indoor recreation space of roughly 22,335 square feet across city facilities and aquatic body-of-water area totaling about 7,500 square feet; expressed as service levels, Buckeye ranked below comparator cities on indoor and aquatic square footage per 1,000 residents. The draft plan recommends pursuing indoor recreation and aquatic facilities, distributed park development in coordination with developers, expanded trails and connectivity (including a connection between Skyline Regional Park and White Tank Mountains Regional Park), park-ranger and volunteer programs, and programming that addresses adaptive recreation needs.

Commissioners asked clarifying questions about specific proposals. Commissioner Puffy asked, "Is pickleball just a fad?" Miranda Gomez replied that staff believe pickleball is likely to remain popular and noted the plan allows flexibility to respond to changing recreation trends. When asked whether splash pads count as aquatic centers, Gomez clarified, "They do not count as aquatic centers. They would count in our park as a park amenity." On the proposed park-ranger role, Gomez described it as a customer-service–oriented on-site presence to help visitors, provide education and coordinate with police when enforcement is needed.

Commissioners praised the outreach and the report's organization. After the discussion, Commissioner Bassler moved that the commission recommend approval of the Buckeye Parks and Recreation Master Plan; the motion was seconded and passed on a unanimous voice vote with no opposition. Staff said the plan already received a unanimous approval recommendation from the Community Services Advisory Board and had been presented to City Council on May 20; the commission's recommendation will be forwarded to the Council for possible action at an upcoming meeting.

The plan as presented does not set specific capital funding or project schedules; staff emphasized the document is a policy and implementation roadmap that will inform the city's capital-improvement planning, partnership negotiations, lease agreements and any future voter measures to fund capital projects.