Lenexa is making a new plan that will guide the development of its parks and recreation activities for the next decade or so.
The city’s most recent master plan, authored in 2012, called for the completion of things like the Lenexa Rec Center, Sar-Ko-Par Trails Park upgrades, expansions to some of the city’s athletic fields and the pending renovation to the Rolling Magic skate park, said Logan Wagler, parks and recreation director.
As the process gets started, Lenexa wants to gather some community input on what they think of the current parks system in the city and what they might want to see added or changed.
“It’s really our job to provide what the community’s recreational needs and priorities are, and so it’s extremely important to get this feedback,” Wagler said.
Lenexa expects to approve a new parks plan this year
- Exactly what will be in the master plan isn’t clear, Wagler said, since this is just the beginning of a multistep process likely to culminate in council approval toward the end of 2023.
- However, he said some incomplete projects from the last master plan, like more new trail development and more nature programming, could be a focus.
- Also, the plan might put an emphasis on building out future parks in west Lenexa, where there’s been a boom in new residential development.
- Some older parks could potentially get some attention in the master plan as targets for reinvestment, expansion or new amenities.
- “It just really helps guide us into the future, just provides not a perfect plan but a rough roadmap for future investments,” Wagler said.
An open house for the parks master plan is Saturday
- The process kicks off this weekend with the first open house on the matter.
- That will be Saturday, April 29, from 9 to 11 a.m. at the Lenexa Rec Center, which will overlap some with the first outdoor farmers’ market of the year happening nearby.
- At the open house, people can walk through a set of six stations that will have different focuses like trails, parks and programming, Wagler said.
- With dot stickers, they’ll be asked to vote on different things as well as mark what they do and don’t like in the current park system.
More public engagement is planned later
- Later on, the city will seek more feedback on the master plan as well.
- Lenexa is leaning into other tools to gather input, including sending out a survey to some households.
- The city is also making use of a digital platform called Social Pinpoint that allows people to make comments and interact with other residents’ comments online.
- Wagler said the city will schedule more open houses during the drafting stage and possibly some smaller group meetings.
The parks master plan refresh was delayed by the pandemic
- The city had originally scheduled to do a smaller-scale refresh to the master plan in early 2020. Wagler said that process would have been less extensive and built on the old plan.
- But, the COVID-19 pandemic put that on the back burner.
- So, nearly three years later, Lenexa is looking at a totally new master plan instead of just an update.
- “It’s long overdue,” Wagler said. “We really had to rethink the whole thing.”
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