Ashland board pauses $8.1M park master plan, agrees to focus on stormwater and safety

A special session of the Ashland park board on April 7 reconsidered a recently completed Park Master Plan after residents and board members raised concerns about the project’s scale and cost. A board member summarized the community process that led to the plan — public outreach with more than 300 residents and consultant work from PDS — and asked the board to "sit down and walk through and put a plan together that rebuilds the park," urging a phased, lower-cost approach.

Members repeatedly cited the plan’s headline cost (described in the meeting as about $8.1 million) against an annual parks revenue stream of roughly $150,000–$167,000. "The issue I had was this year cost $8,100,000," one committee member said, framing objections as fiscal rather than aesthetic. The board did not adopt the full package as presented; instead members agreed to identify a "bare minimum" list of fixes, get engineering and cost estimates and pursue scaled options that could be funded with a combination of the parks tax revenue, grants and fundraising.

The meeting produced a working consensus on priorities: address stormwater erosion that regularly damages the playgrounds, improve lighting and vandalism deterrence, replace unsafe playground equipment and preserve the pond as a community feature if its ongoing maintenance can be made feasible. Staff described the pond as requiring dredging and periodic pump replacement, and recommended the stormwater interception/diversion as the logical first step to protect new improvements.

Next steps the board directed were procedural rather than legislative: staff will produce cost estimates and a minimal-checklist for near-term work and the board discussed asking PDS to provide scaled design options and pricing. Board members encouraged community-led fundraising and targeted grant-seeking rather than approving an all-at-once $8 million construction package.