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Murrieta parks and recreation master plan update emphasizes fields, pickleball and aquatics
Summary
Parks and community services manager Leah Kolek told the Library Advisory Commission that the city's updated parks and recreation master plan, adopted by the City Council in June 2025, resulted from about 3,977 community touch points and recommends more sports fields, pickleball courts and expanded aquatics projects.
Leah Kolek, Murrieta's parks and community services manager, briefed the Library Advisory Commission on the city's parks and recreation master plan update on Feb. 9, outlining outreach, priorities and next steps.
"The city council formally adopted this plan in June 2025," Kolek said, describing a 20-month planning process led with RJM Design Group that produced about "3,977 touch points" from stakeholder interviews, workshops and surveys. Kolek said the update is a roadmap for managing, improving and expanding Murrieta's parks and recreation facilities and programs and that the final document is organized into five sections to guide future decisions.
Kolek summarized five key strategies and several resulting recommendations: build more sports fields, add pickleball courts and leagues, expand trails (covered in a concurrently developed trails master plan), and prioritize aquatics projects. She said council identified a splash pad as a tier-1 project ready for design, engineering and construction; larger projects such as a Cal Oaks pool replacement will take longer and may require capital budgeting.
On specific projects, Kolek said construction began the week of Jan. 12 on three additional pickleball courts at Alderwood Park and a ribbon cutting is likely in spring, barring unforeseen circumstances. Kolek noted that many of the recommendations can be accomplished within the operating budget rather than the capital budget and that staff will carry plan recommendations into departmental strategic planning with funding and timeline details to follow.
Kolek also described the trails master plan process: both plans were issued under a single RFP, run concurrently, and the consultant worked across both efforts; related materials and appendices are available on the city website under parks and recreation.
The presentation framed the master plan as an implementation-oriented document: community priorities were translated into project lists that staff will prioritize, budget and monitor for emerging trends.
The commission asked clarifying questions about survey methodology and household randomization; Kolek said the consultant documented sampling details in an appendix available online.
