Community meetings scheduled for April 5, 12 and 19

Riverside, Ca. – The City of Riverside is seeking public involvement as part of an extensive community engagement process to help identify and prioritize the type of services and amenities the community desires for the inclusion as part of the Comprehensive Park Master Plan.

The Comprehensive Park Master Plan will help guide the future development of Parks and Recreation in Riverside through 2030. The plan is being developed through multiple forms of community input, including public workshops, stakeholder meetings, focus groups, a statistically valid phone survey and an online survey.

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The next group of public workshops will be held on Thursday, April 5, from 6 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. at the Joyce Jackson Community Center at Nichols Park, and at Orange Terrace Community Center in the Orangecrest area.

Public Workshops will also be held on April 12 at the Renck Community Center at Hunt Park and at Arlanza Community Center at Bryant Park; and on April 19 at La Sierra Senior Center.

Community input will be a critical factor in developing the plan.

“Once complete, this document will help guide future policy decisions, projects and the future of our parks system and recreational programming,” Mayor Rusty Bailey said.

The City has retained RJM Design Group, a multi-disciplinary planning and landscape architectural design firm, to conduct a community engagement process for the City. Once a draft is completed, the master plan will be available to the public for review and comment prior to adoption. The city expects the plan to be complete by August, 2018.

“We welcome community residents, business owners, sports groups, and any other interested parties to share their ideas,” said Parks, Recreation and Community Services Director Adolfo Cruz. “We’d like to know what you like about our parks system, what changes you’d like to see, and what amenities are important to you and your family.”

The City of Riverside’s park system consists of 16 miles of recreational trails, 63 park properties, including developed public parks, regional reserve parks and wilderness areas, and 7 undeveloped park sites – a total of 2,983 acres of parkland throughout the city — as well as 10 Recreation/Community Centers, three senior centers and seven swimming pool facilities.

“Riverside’s parks are a major reason for the high quality of life in our city,” Mayor Pro Tem Chris MacArthur said. “On behalf of the Riverside City Council, I encourage everyone to make their voices heard on the future of our parks system.”

For more information about the parks and recreation master plan visit www.rivparksmasterplan.org.