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Consultants present 2025 Belgrade Regional Parks, Trails and Recreation District Master Plan; council takes no action
Summary
Consultants summarized the 2025 Master Plan, highlighting community engagement, priorities (aquatic center, regional park, trails and programming) and capital project ranking; council asked clarifying questions, praised the implementation plan and took no formal action.
Consultants for the Belgrade Regional Parks, Trails and Recreation District presented the district’s 2025 Master Plan to the Belgrade City Council, outlining priorities identified through community engagement and a capital project list for future work.
The presentation, led by the project team from Cushing Terrell, said the planning process included a project website, two community open houses, targeted door-hangers and focus groups. The team summarized community priorities in four categories — places, connections, programming and administration — and said the top facility priorities were an aquatic center, a recreational center and a regional park. “Through that, it came out that under places and facilities, the big winner there was an aquatic center,” the presenter said.
The team explained how definitions affected the inventory counts: one slide initially listed 24 dog parks, but the consultants clarified they had counted many leash-allowed public areas; when a dog park was defined as a fenced, off-leash public area, the count dropped to one. “That went from 24 down to 1,” the presenter said, noting the existing fenced facility is in West Post.
Recommendations included creating a trail master plan, developing minimum park design standards, a web-based reservation and work-order system, and a capital ranking framework that evaluates safety, community need, partnerships, maintenance capacity and funding opportunities. The plan also identified the opportunity to pursue roughly 80 acres of DNRC land centrally located in the district as a potential regional park site.
Council members asked about implementation steps and capital costs and praised the implementation action plan. One councilor said the implementation-focused approach helped make the plan actionable: that councilor called the implementation action plan “helpful” and said it framed priorities rather than presenting the entire capital list as immediate needs. There were no public comments on the item and the council took no formal action at this meeting.
The plan will remain available for future council consideration alongside budgeting and grant-seeking decisions; staff and the council signaled interest in next steps such as a trail master plan, additional community engagement on specific sites and pursuing grant opportunities for high-priority projects.
