Planning commission recommends Murrieta parks and trails master plans to council after broad outreach

The Murrieta Planning Commission on May 14 voted unanimously to recommend that City Council approve the Parks & Recreation Master Plan update and adopt a new Trails Master Plan following a presentation by City Parks staff and consultant RJM Design Group.

Leah Kolick, parks and community services manager for the City of Murrieta, opened the presentation and said the update reflects a city that has grown “substantially,” noting roughly 115,000 residents and 53 parks. Kolick turned the presentation over to RJM, which led a 16-month public process.

"It's my pleasure to be here with you at tonight's planning commission meeting," Kolick said in introducing the project team. Zach of RJM summarized the outreach strategy, which included focus groups, stakeholder interviews, three in‑person workshops, three virtual workshops, a multimodal statistically valid survey and a continuously available project website.

"We received over 3,900 data points as part of this outreach process," Zach told the commission, and RJM said those responses informed a prioritized needs matrix. High-priority items identified by residents included improved program…