Josephine planning commission recommends city adopt parks and trails master plan

The City of Josephine Planning and Zoning Commission voted Oct. 16 to recommend the Draft Parks and Trails Master Plan to the City Council after a presentation from Kimley Horn consultants.

Ignacio Mejia of Kimley Horn said the plan is a strategic guide for future parks and trail development that helps the city qualify for grant programs such as those from the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department and other regional funding sources. He told the commission the consultant team completed an inventory, demographic assessment and public-engagement process over roughly eight to nine months.

Anna Raider, also with Kimley Horn, summarized the plan’s key findings and the public outreach that informed them. The firm held an April open house attended by about 50 people and later ran an online survey with 123 respondents (about 35 fully completed responses). Using a moderate 4% population projection, the consultants said the city had about a 13-acre park acreage deficit within city limits in 2024 and — if no parks are added — projected roughly a 25-acre deficit by 2040. The study classified parks by size and service area and measured trail inventories and standards; the combined city + ETJ trail mileage was reported as about 3.39 miles, with roughly 0.5 miles inside the city limits and only one existing trail meeting an 8-foot recommended minimum width.

Commissioners asked whether grants and grant-funded improvements must be located within city limits; consultants and staff said eligibility varies by program and some grants focus on projects inside city limits while others may support regional or ETJ activities. Commissioners also raised concerns about counting HOA-owned private parks in the inventory; Kimley Horn said HOA facilities were included for completeness but acknowledged that gated or private-access facilities do not provide the same public benefit as dedicated city parks and that excluding them makes the city’s deficit larger.

The plan includes an implementation matrix and an investment projects table that assigns relative priority (low/medium/high) and provides dollar-sign ranges for estimated costs; the presentation did not include exact project-cost figures in the public meeting. Consultants identified opportunity areas for future parks and trails — including potential reuse of an abandoned railroad right-of-way and floodplain corridors for linear trails — and recommended linking local projects to county- and regional-level trail initiatives.

A commissioner moved that the Planning and Zoning Commission recommend the Draft Parks and Trails Master Plan to City Council for adoption; the motion was seconded and approved by voice vote. Staff and the consultants said they will incorporate the commission’s feedback and that the city council is scheduled to hold a public hearing and consider adoption on Nov. 10.

The commission’s recommendation does not itself adopt the plan; final action will be at the City Council public hearing in November.