Buckeye staff present 10-year Parks and Recreation Master Plan after citywide outreach

The City of Buckeye presented a draft Parks and Recreation Master Plan to the City Council on May 20, 2025, after a multi-year outreach process that included a statistically valid survey, community events and stakeholder meetings, staff said.

Miranda Gomez, community services director, said the document is a long-range, 10-year policy plan produced by Community Services staff with consultant Kimley Horn. “We are excited to present to you the draft Parks and Recreation Master Plan,” Gomez said. Gomez and Bob Weiser, deputy director in community services, told council members the plan compiles resident input, an analysis of levels of service and recommended themes and implementation objectives.

The nut graf: Buckeye’s master plan identifies gaps between current park provision and council-adopted service goals from 2016 and lays out program and amenity priorities, land-acquisition opportunities and a 30-year, stepwise approach to increase developed park acreage. Staff said the draft is intended to guide decisions and partnerships rather than serve as a capital-funding plan.

City outreach and survey results

Bob Weiser described outreach the department led with Kimley Horn and residents. “The first thing that we did is we created an interactive project website that was www.planbuckeyeparks.com,” Weiser said, and the team used online exercises, focus groups, two rounds of public meetings, event-based outreach and a statistically valid mailed survey.

Staff said the statistically valid survey sampled 4,000 random Buckeye addresses and returned 524 responses (about a 13% response rate; the project’s goal was 10%). Combined public input reported to council included 4,305 total inputs, more than 1,000 website survey responses, roughly 250 focus-group…