Karen Gleason
The 830 Times
City officials are laying the foundation for a master plan for Del Rio’s parks.
City council members, city administrators, Laughlin Air Force Base community planners and Del Rio Parks Foundation members met at City Hall Wednesday to begin the process of developing the master plan.
Mark Maldonado of the consulting firm, Stantec, led the meeting.
Before the meeting began, Maldonado spoke to an 830 Times staff member about Stantec, its mission here and the parks master plan process.
“Stantec is a top 10 global design firm. We are consultants that do everything from architecture engineering to urban planning, conservation, the whole thing and what we’re doing in Del Rio is helping the city create a parks master plan,” Maldonado said.
“We are the same consulting firm that did the citywide comprehensive master plan, and we were also selected to do a comprehensive parks master plan for the city. That’s good, because there’s a lot of overlap, and we are very excited the effort is continuing and spilling over to the city’s parks and recreation system,” he added.
“What we’re doing today is meeting with members of the Del Rio Parks Foundation and city council members to kind of kick off the process and letting them know what the process looks like and what the planning process entails, letting them participate in the survey that’s going to be rolled out community-wide within the next two weeks,” Maldonado said.
He said the city-wide survey will allow Del Rioans to express their opinions about what they would like to see happen in the city’s existing parks, including any amenities like swimming pools, walking trails, playgrounds, pavilions and barbecue grills they would like to see added and new parks they would like to see created.
“We’d also like to get feedback from visitors and county residents who use Del Rio’s parks. We want to make sure we hear every voice. We’re going to look at national standards, we’re going to look at trends, and we’re going to look at community feedback, and what are those important issues for the citizens of Del Rio in regards to amenities. Do they want new parks or would they rather see upgrades to existing parks? And what are those priorities? Is there something missing from the system that should be introduced? This is the chance for everybody to voice their opinions,” Maldonado said.
“Right now, we’re still at the 20,000 to 30,000-foot in the air perspective, looking at the overall picture, looking city-wide, how do we connect things, where do we see missed opportunities, where do we see opportunities, so we will be addressing certain issues.
“One of the components of our scope is to look at natural trails, natural-surface trails and how do we improve connectivity in the city of Del Rio,” Maldonado added.
He said this is where the city’s comprehensive master plan will dovetail with the parks master plan.
“In the comprehensive plan, we are overlaying the transportation network with some trail networks to see where does it make sense where vehicles and bikes and pedestrians can interact or be separated, and that’s why it’s so important for the efforts toward the comprehensive plan spill over into the parks master plan to see how all this weaves together and makes sense,” Maldonado said.
The meeting began with introductions all around, including the four council members who attended the session: Mayor Pro-tem Steve Webb, Councilman Jim DeReus, Councilwoman Alexandra Falcon Calderon and Councilman Jesus Lopez Jr.
Several city staffers also attended, including City Manager John Sheedy, Community Services Director Esme Meza and City Purchasing Agent Luis Menchaca.
Other who attended the meeting included Lupita De La Paz, a member of the city’s parks advisory board and the executive director of the Casa De La Cultura. Several personnel from Laughlin Air Force Base attended, as did members of the base’s community planning staff. Ken Hayes and Jake Carsten of the Del Rio Parks Foundation also attended.
The writer can be reached at delriomagnoliafan@gmail.com .
