Cleveland kicks off open houses Tuesday for community input on needed park and recreation investments.
During the open house, attendees can view the city's draft parks and recreation master plan, which aims to put facilities within a 20-minute walk of homes, according to Jay Rauschenbach, parks and recreation planning manager.
"Design guidelines are really just going to help us when we go to renovate a park or make a new park," he said. "These design guidelines will help us, kind of, go through a checklist of things we heard from the community that they want in their park."
The draft includes recommended policies for maintenance and upkeep of facilities, Rauschenbach said.
The city hosts six open houses through May 20 along with an online survey open until the end of the month for those who can't attend an in-person open house.
The city completed phase one, its community needs assessment in January, which helped to highlight neighborhoods and demographics that lacked access to safe, quality parks and recreation centers.
"We heard from you last year. This is our draft plan for the long-range plan," Rauschenbach said. "Did we get it correct?"
The planning team used feedback collected from 1,500 Cleveland residents during the first round of public engagement to determine recommended locations for parks and recreation centers as well as amenities residents want to see, Rauschenbach said.
"They just want a nice playground. If there's a basketball court, they want it to be nice without cracks," he said. "They really just want the most basic things, but high quality."
The team expects to have a final plan by July. Then the focus shifts to securing funding to support implementation.
Once finalized, the parks and recreation master plan will be the first in the city in more than 40 years.
