Planning commission recommends council adopt 10-year Parks & Recreation Master Plan, flags costs and equity issues

The Charlottesville Planning Commission voted March 11, 2025, to recommend City Council adopt a 10-year Parks & Recreation Master Plan dated Jan. 27, 2025, after a presentation from city parks staff and the consultant team and a brief public comment period.

The plan lays out a 10-year implementation horizon focused on city-owned and co-owned parks, proposing roughly $78 million in capital improvements across three buckets — sustainable maintenance, expanded services and visionary projects — and includes a proposal to add about 12 miles of off-road shared-use paths. Consultant Mike Spetz described the effort as centered on city needs: "This is a City Of Charlottesville centric plan," and said the plan was developed to be "realistic, implementable, and financially sustainable."

Why it matters: the plan sets priorities that will guide the city's capital improvement programming and staffing decisions for the next decade. It highlights river access, greenways and walkable access to parks as community priorities and identifies social-equity criteria for prioritizing projects. Spetz told the commission the outreach effort produced about 2,400–2,500 engagement touch points across roughly 33 events and…