Gilbert parks master plan now in place

By Tom Blodgett
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Gilbert loves its parks. 

Town surveys show 87% of residents have been to one of the town’s parks or facilities during the past year, 43% visit weekly and 61% have participated in one of the Gilbert Parks and Recreation Department’s programs during the past year. 

But for all that love, there is not enough of them. Gilbert only has 3.1 acres of park land per 1,000 residents while the National Recreation and Parks Association recommends 10.1 acres per 1,000. No recreation centers exist in south Gilbert. And 25% of residents say they cannot participate in town classes because they are full. 

Gilbert now has a plan to address all that during the next 10 years.  

After an unprecedented effort to collect input from residents, Gilbert Town Council unanimously adopted the town’s 10-year parks and recreation master plan — which staff titled “Plan Where You Play” — without fanfare or even comment at its June 18 meeting. 

"We are thrilled to have the town council's support for this forward-thinking plan," Parks and Recreation Director Robert Carmona said in a town release after the approval. "This master plan is a testament to our community's vision and dedication to creating exceptional recreational spaces that benefit the quality of life for those who live, work or play in Gilbert."   

The plan identifies six initiatives to address community desires for more parks, facilities and programming as it approaches build-out during the time frame of the plan. 

Those initiatives are:  

• Preserve existing assets — a proactive maintenance and preservation effort to ensure town parks and recreation spaces remain safe, attractive and functional; 

• Excel through innovation — explore and adopt innovative approaches, technologies and best practices in parks management; 

• Create a connected community — prioritize community engagement and interaction by organizing community events, volunteer programs and social activities as well as develop multiuse trails; 

• Share our story — a strategic communications effort on branding and outreach to residents, stakeholders and decision-makers; 

• Ensure equitable services — address barriers to participation, including geographic, economic, cultural and physical barriers, to ensure everyone in the community has the opportunity to benefit from amenities and programs;  

• Develop our team — increase staff size and focus on staff development. 

The key input came from the town’s massive outreach effort last year that reached more than 61,000 “community touch points” through surveys, focus groups, pop-up engagement events, a 17-foot traveling mural that made 12 stops around town, a design-your-own-playground workshop, social media campaign and online visits to the master plan. 

Through that effort, residents identified what they saw as their key priorities: 

• Park development; 

• Recreation centers with indoor amenities;  

• Aquatic/pool facilities; 

• Sports fields; 

• Garden spaces; 

• Multi-use paths and trails;  

• Pickleball courts; 

• Shade; 

• Public art. 

Those identified priorities informed the town’s development of capital improvement projects to include in the years before build-out, expected to happen by the early 2030s. 

The town is considering a sales tax increase to help fund those projects as well as ones for the police and fire departments. 

While taxes rarely have public support, Gilbert has reason to believe residents will accept one for parks uses. Town data shows 93% of residents indicated high-quality parks and multiuse path experiences are “very important” or “important” to the quality of life in Gilbert, and 79% indicated support for improvements and new developments for parks and recreation. 

We would like to invite our readers to submit their civil comments, pro or con, on this issue. Email AZOpinions@iniusa.org. Tom Blodgett can be reached by email at tblodgett@iniusa.org or follow him @sp_blodgett on X.     

Tom Blodgett
Senior News Editor | Gilbert

tblodgett@iniusa.org

Meet Tom
Tom Blodgett joined Independent Newsmedia, Inc., USA, in 2022, when the company acquired Community Impact Newspaper's Phoenix-area properties. Raised in Arizona, he has spent more than 35 years in journalism in the state.

Community: He has served as an instructional professional in the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication since 2005, and is editorial adviser to The State Press, the university's independent student media outlet. He also is director of operations for an 18U girls fastpitch softball team from Gilbert.

Education: Arizona State University with a BS in Journalism. 

Random Fact: He lived in Belgium during his freshman year of high school.  

Hobbies: Tweeting enthusiastically about ASU softball (season-ticket holder) and grumpily about other local sports (pessimistic fan).