Parks plan OK'd

DEPUTY EDITOR

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The Clovis city commission moved ahead Thursday night with what it called a roadmap for the next 10 years of parks and recreation, approving updates to its parks master plan.

The 7-0 vote, arrived at following issues raised with language inside the plan, ends an eight-month process that included hundreds of surveys, numerous meetings with Parks, Recreation and Beautification Committee, a town hall and a city commission study session.

Jacque Fishman of Consensus Planning of Albuquerque, which was tasked to work on the plan update, presented a pair of maps of the Hillcrest Park area bordered by Sycamore, Seventh, Norris and 14th streets that including soccer fields, the Youth Recreation Building, Dickenson Field, the zoo, and Guy Leeder Softball Complex.

An interim plan shows the area mostly as is, with the addition of tennis and pickleball courts north of the YRB and a disc golf area separate from the Par 3 golf course. An ultimate plan combines the Par 3 and disc golf course. That allows for American Youth Soccer Organization fields in the interim disc golf area, which then opens up land for two additional softball fields at Guy Leeder.

“Keep in mind this is just a road map,” Mayor David Lansford said. “It’s not a mandate for the commission to do anything, necessarily.”

Commissioner Randy Crowder, who could not be at the study session last week due to a prior commitment, had issue with some of the language in the plan. He first asked Fishman how the data for the plan report was compiled. She responded it was a combination of 1,000 surveys randomly mailed to residents, printed surveys available at city buildings and an online component handled by SurveyMonkey.com. In total, there were more than 720 respondents.

Crowder said many of the conclusions reached in the plan noted that a majority of Clovis residents believed the city should follow certain directions, including requiring developers set aside land for parks and dedicate more of the city’s budget to parks.

Crowder said the survey turnout was great, but couldn’t be considered representative of a city of 38,000 people since many of the people taking the survey were voluntarily doing so and would thus have interest in park services.

Exception was also taken by Crowder to a request to add neighborhood parks to areas of growth north of 21st Street and west of Martin Luther King Boulevard. Crowder said he’d never seen growth in those areas. Fishman said growth should happen with infrastructure and utility upgrades, but Crowder responded the report was mistaking an assumption for fact.

Fishman took no exception to Crowder’s arguments, and she was open to rewording sections.

Lansford reminded Crowder it wouldn’t be a perfect document, even if it was tabled and modified for another few weeks. Crowder said he would be fine voting for the plan if amendments reflected that conclusions could only be made for survey respondents and not the community as a whole.

Commissioners agreed, with Commissioner Fidel Madrid noting issues could have been cleared up had all commissioners simply attended some of the events during the eight months of work.