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Draft 10‑year parks and recreation plan urges land banking, more parks and an indoor center
Summary
Consultant McGill & Associates presented a draft 10‑year parks and recreation master plan highlighting record event attendance, strong public demand for more parks and trails, recommendations to land‑bank east-of-center sites, and staffing and funding approaches to meet growth.
The council heard a draft 10‑year Parks and Recreation comprehensive plan presentation from McGill & Associates on July 16.
Consultant Nate Halubka summarized public outreach, benchmarking and key findings: Harrisburg drew record attendance (staff cited about 35,000 visitors over two days during recent July events) and survey/focus‑group results showed very high resident demand for additional parks, trails and an indoor recreation center. Benchmarks against peer communities found Harrisburg is investing in parks but still lags in miles of trail, parkland acreage and indoor facilities; public input overwhelmingly prioritized more greenway/trail miles and additional parkland acquisitions.
Recommendations included land banking (especially east of the town center where growth is concentrated), targeted site master plans (for example, at Farm Hill/nearby growth corridors), improved registration and program data to inform operations, incremental staffing growth to manage expanded programming and an emphasis on leveraging grants while not relying solely on them for acquisitions. The consultant encouraged a balanced approach of town investment and nonprofit partnerships, while cautioning that overreliance on grants can leave a community behind if land prices rise.
Councilmembers were given the draft (with appendices online) and staff invited comments over the coming month, with a target to consider adoption in August if no substantive edits are required.
