City awards bid for Parks & Rec plan

SANDPOINT — To develop a comprehensive vision for Sandpoint’s park system, the city has initiated a Parks and Recreation master planning effort that will address individual parks, open spaces, trails, recreation facilities, amenities and programs.

The planning effort is officially underway after City Council awarded the bid to GreenPlay, LLC, last week, and no one is more thrilled than Parks and Recreation Director Kim Woodruff.

“I have been here for a long time, over 30 years, and I have been wanting a plan like this for probably 25,” Woodruff said. “So I am really, really excited for the process.”

According to the proposal by GreenPlay, the plan will begin with a comprehensive vision for parks and recreation in the community, and will culminate with a set of recommendations that will allow the city to improve and enhance opportunities for active and passive recreation by residents over the next 10-20 years.

The current master plan was developed in 2010, and several things have changed since then, and it also did not include any site specific or financial planning, Woodruff told council in January.

During the January meeting, City Administrator Jennifer Stapleton said the plan will be addressed in five phases over the next year. In the first phase, a community context/resource inventory will be done to review existing conditions and trends, conduct site inventory and analysis of the city’s parks, facilities and recreation programs, as well as to map data and address accessibility.

The second phase looks at master planning on a system-wide level, Stapleton said, including review of previous plans, going through a public input process, creating a needs analysis and developing a prioritized action plan.

The process will then move into the third phase, which includes taking all the information learned in previous phases and implementing site-specific planning in areas such as City Beach and Memorial Field. Phase four would move into new and refined programs and services, Stapleton said, looking at service delivery that compliments and enhances other recreation programs in the community.

The final phase, she said, will be operational and maintenance planning. This phase includes a financial plan, anticipation of equipment and capital replacements, and staffing projections.

Council approved the contract with GreenPlay in an amount not to exceed $120,000. GreenPlay officials noted in the proposal that the team will engage stakeholders in the community throughout the planning process. According to the company’s timeline, they plan to have a final draft delivered to council in November.

Mary Malone can be reached by email at mmalone@bonnercountydailybee.com and follow her on Twitter @MaryDailyBee.