Phoenix parks department highlights new cricket fields, South Mountain upgrades and A+ 3PI audit; public raises transparency, authority concerns

Cynthia Aguilar, director of the Parks and Recreation Department, told the Transportation Infrastructure and Planning Subcommittee that the department completed multiple capital projects in 2024, unveiled three new cricket pitches and received an A+ rating from an independent audit of 3PI (the Phoenix parks sales-tax initiative).

The update matters because the department’s projects and the 3PI revenue stream fund park renovations and operations across Phoenix; several members of the public used the subcommittee hearing to press the city for greater transparency, additional amenities at the new cricket fields, and clarification about the parks board’s authority.

Aguilar opened the presentation by outlining the scale of the system: the city manages 187 parks, 33 community centers, 29 pools, eight municipal golf courses and 10 mountain preserves totaling more than 36,000 acres and about 240 miles of designated mountain trails. She said the department staff numbers about 1,400 and that two new parks in Laveen are planned to open this year.

Deputy director Danielle Poveromo described 2024 events and community activation work. “This signature city event ... fosters a sense of community for all,” Poveromo said of the APS Electric Light Parade, which she said drew an estimated 400,000 attendees along a 2.3-mile route and reached additional viewers through broadcast partners.

The department reported several capital projects completed in 2024. Notable work at South Mountain Park and Preserve includes roughly $22 million in improvements over the past nine years and a $2 million Gila Valley Lookout project that renovated an underused parking area, added shade canopies and an accessible perimeter walking loop. Deputy director Jared Rogers, who spoke about South Mountain, said, “It is still one of the largest municipal parks in the country,” and described visitor-center renovations and interpretive features added last year.

Parks staff also described systemwide capital upgrades: renovated community-center gym floors and restrooms, resurfaced courts at Road Runner Park, playground and court work at Falcon and Momo parks, and the installation in May 2024 of Phoenix’s first fully ADA-accessible playground at Encanto Park, built with Kiwanis Club partnership.

The department highlighted three newly designed cricket fields funded and built after sustained community advocacy: two at Turtle Rock Basin and one at Grover’s Basin. The fields include concrete slabs with artificial turf, a roughly 420-foot-diameter play field, bleachers and team benches, the presentation said. Santosh Bogata, president of the Cricket Association of Phoenix, thanked the city and asked the subcommittee to “enhance the existing facilities by adding restrooms ... and adequate lighting,” citing needs raised during a recent women’s tournament.

Aguilar reviewed the parks master plan process—the first since 1988—saying the plan includes five focus areas (inventory and assessment, recreation trends and equitable access, water conservation and environmental design, stakeholder outreach, and facility strategy). The department reported roughly 2,500 responses to an interactive feedback map and nearly 3,000 survey responses, all available through parksMasterplanPHX.com, and said outreach materials were provided in English and Spanish.

On funding oversight, Aguilar told the subcommittee the independent evaluation of 3PI expenditures sampled about 70% of 3PI-funded projects for the most recent fiscal year and found the projects were in compliance with the ballot language. “They called it an A-plus rating,” Aguilar said. That result was reiterated during public comment and by volunteers on 3PI-related oversight committees present at the meeting.

Several public commenters raised concerns. Jerry Van Gass and Tim Cerakowski questioned changes in project budgets for South Mountain and whether 3PI funds were being spent strictly in accordance with the ballot language; Tim Cerakowski urged a legal review and said the parks board’s authority “is overbroad” and should be limited. John Furnace, who serves with Sonoran preserves volunteer committees, offered a contrasting view and said he is satisfied with current processes and controls.

Dustin Kamick, a lawyer with the city Law Department who advised the subcommittee, said the parks board’s powers are established in the city charter and related city code sections. “That is all spelled out in the city charter,” Kamick said, and he noted that as a charter city Phoenix has leeway to define the board’s powers; any change to charter language would require a voter-approved amendment.

The parks board’s current trail-closure practice and a related public survey also drew discussion. Parks staff said the board asked for public input on two issues: whether to continue using National Weather Service heat-warning days as the threshold for closures or to adopt a straight temperature threshold, and which daytime hours should be blocked when closures occur. The current policy, parks staff said, closes trails from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on days when the National Weather Service issues heat warnings. Parks staff told the subcommittee they will present survey results to the Parks and Recreation Board in a work-study session next Thursday; those materials will also be shared with council members.

The subcommittee received two staff commitments in response to public concerns: staff will forward the survey results to the parks board for further consideration, and the deputy city manager agreed to explore options for recording or televising parks-board meetings to increase public transparency.

The subcommittee did not take new formal action on parks projects during the presentation; the session functioned as an informational update and a forum for public comment. The department said the parks master plan work will continue and that several small and mid-size capital projects remain in progress or scheduled to open in coming months.

Members of the public, volunteer committee representatives and council members praised parks staff repeatedly during the meeting for project delivery and community outreach while also pressing for clearer accounting of large project cost changes and greater transparency about parks-board decisionmaking.

Looking ahead, the department emphasized outreach for the parks master plan and follow-up on the trail-closure survey. Parks staff said the activation grants funded by ARPA supported 46 organizations to hold more than 200 events at 36 parks in 2024, and that the department will continue community engagement as the master plan proceeds.