Board adopts 10‑year Parks & Recreation master plan, outlines near‑term and visionary projects

The Board of Supervisors voted to adopt an updated Parks and Recreation Master Plan that lays out a district‑responsive, 10‑year strategy to maintain existing services and add targeted new facilities.

Tom Cochran, the county's director of parks and recreation, told the board the plan grew from extensive community engagement including a statistically valid survey (329 respondents, 95% confidence, margin +/-5.3) and a facilities assessment. "We learned that a community would like us to develop new facilities and amenities in the Eastern side of the county," Cochran said, summarizing priorities such as paved trails, low‑impact wellness amenities and expanded water access.

Concepts include upgrades at Matthews Park and Tucker's/Leakes Mill parks (parking and ADA improvements, kayak launches, fishing piers and dog parks), a reconfigured downtown/fairgrounds area with a large farmers market pavilion and synthetic multipurpose fields for high usage, and a proposed new East Side park that could include an indoor public‑private sports facility sized roughly for 10'12 basketball courts tied to sports tourism. Staff estimated the full suite of visionary projects at just under $28 million; Cochran emphasized the plan itself does not commit funding but will guide future CIP decisions.

After discussion about prioritization — including one supervisor's request to front‑load East Side investments — the board moved and unanimously approved the master plan as the county's guiding recreation document for the next decade.

What happens next: The plan becomes a guiding document for CIP priorities and project scoping; next steps include design RFPs for any project the board elects to fund and continued community engagement.