Planning commission reviews parks and recreation draft; community recreation center, forest lands and maintenance highlighted

Planning staff presented proposed 2025 Comprehensive Plan amendments for the Parks, Recreation and Open Space element at the May 14 Anacortes Planning Commission meeting, and commissioners engaged in detailed discussion on community recreation facilities, maintenance funding, forest lands management and accessibility.

The planning department said the changes aim to consolidate and clarify policy language, identify underserved neighborhoods for new park access, support arts and culture in public space, and align parks policies with other plan elements such as climate and transportation.

John Lunsford and Bob Vokes of the Parks Department presented the draft. Lunsford described public-space and pocket-park examples and said the update expands support for arts and culture, coordination with partners and new policies for public gathering spaces. He said the draft broadens language on community recreation and consolidates earlier items into clearer action-oriented policies. Lunsford noted the city is exploring a community recreation center and described a fundraising and delivery path: pledges of about $10 million in land and cash have been made, and a fundraising goal of roughly $25 million was discussed; he said the project may need an additional $2 million to $5 million in pledges in the current year to advance design and construction planning.

Commissioners pressed for specifics. Commissioner McCombs and others asked whether the parks department has identified underserved neighborhoods; staff pointed to the Q Avenue corridor and areas south of Second that lack nearby park access and to specific projects (e.g., expansions around the Benroak/Benrook skate park, the Twenty-Eighth Street playground and community garden) as examples. Commissioner McCombs asked whether the proposed community recreation center could include a pool; staff recalled past attempts to combine a recreation center with the pool district and said the current focus is on land adjacent to the skate park, with the center envisioned to serve a broad age range and daytime use. Staff said the Fidalgo Pool is an independent taxing district and that any pool inclusion would depend on partnership agreements.

Commissioners asked the parks department to emphasize maintenance and operations funding, not only capital. Staff explained that impact fees and capital funding pay for facilities but not operating staff; the department said it is short-staffed and that volunteers and service clubs supplement maintenance, but that long-term upkeep requires operations funding in the city budget. The draft adds language tying impact fee updates to state law and notes the need to consider operations funding for new facilities.

Forest lands and access drew sustained discussion. Staff described coordination with the Samish Nation on culturally sensitive sites (Ship Harbor) and said the Anacortes Community Forest Lands (ACFL) plan remains a standalone document but that Parks will bring relevant forest policies into the comp plan element; the department proposed continuing the ACFL advisory board process and noted citizen-science partnerships and university contacts for monitoring and habitat work. Commissioners requested clarity about which matters are under city jurisdiction versus the Skagit County urban growth area (March's Point) and asked staff to map interjurisdictional responsibilities.

Trail access, e-bikes and motorized definitions: commissioners asked staff to define “non-motorized” in parks policy and Lunsford and Vokes explained the department allows Class 1 e-bikes (pedal-assist up to ~18 mph) on bicycle trails while treating higher-assist classes as motorized. The department noted a 15 mph operational speed limit in forest lands and said a forest plan update will clarify rules for electric assist bicycles and other trail definitions.

Staff highlighted an update: the parks department and police department are exploring a dedicated park ranger position housed in the police department to handle park safety, maintenance coordination and nontraditional patrol/education roles; staff asked commissioners to note the concept in policy language.

Ending: Staff will revise the parks element wording to reflect commissioner requests (reinsert clearer maintenance language, clarify ACFL vs comp plan status, refine community recreation center language and add detail on underserved areas) and will return a clean draft for a public hearing at the next Planning Commission meeting. No formal adoption or binding action occurred at this meeting.