The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
Community input opportunities coming
By Kendra Walker
The Gunnison County Metropolitan Recreation District (MetRec) is beginning the process of developing the area’s first regional parks and recreation master plan, which will help identify recreation community needs in the Gunnison Valley. With opportunities for community input throughout the entire process, the goal is to finalize the master plan in January 2025. During an April 24 work session, the MetRec board met with its master planning team from Norris Design, Barker Rinker Seacat Architecture and Ballard*King & Associates to kick off the master plan process.
The vision for MetRec’s first-ever master plan is to create a guide for successful and sustainable year-round planning for recreation, arts and culture across Gunnison County. It will identify the community’s needs and outline a plan to meet these needs over time. The plan is intended to provide guidance for strategically investing in regional programs, infrastructure and facilities, enhance existing recreation opportunities and provide expanded recreation opportunities that meet community needs.
“A recreation master plan will guide decision-making and provide insight into changing community needs and perspectives,” said Tori Aidala of Norris Design, who recently worked with the Town of Mt. Crested Butte to develop its master plan. Aidala explained that a master plan will allow MetRec to better understand the level of service being provided throughout the Gunnison Valley, identify available resources, find where the gaps are and how to most strategically invest with the right programing and facilities. “We’ll develop a prioritized action plan that outlines next steps to address needs identified through public feedback and provide a path forward to explore future funding strategies,” she said.
The board is currently finalizing its vision and goals for the master plan, and in the coming months will review relevant planning documents from local municipalities and begin community and stakeholder outreach.
Outreach will include an online community survey and community events in both the north and south subdistricts this summer to identify current and future needs, levels of service and priorities. MetRec has created advisory committees for the north and south subdistricts and will hold advisory committee meetings to gather a baseline of rec facilities and programs currently available in the community. Through this outreach process, the team will analyze the inventory of existing parks and recreation facilities to better understand access, areas of opportunity, utilities and infrastructure, and connectivity and transit.
Then in the fall, the team will take what they’ve heard and develop conceptual plans for how to improve on existing offerings and fill the gaps with proposed sites and programs. The conceptual planning will also include cost estimation for capital improvements, program implementation and ongoing operations and maintenance.
Aidala said the master plan will ultimately provide policy guidance, goals for district improvement areas and programming and a phased action and implementation plan. The board, advisory committees and community will have opportunities to review the draft for feedback and updates throughout the process leading up to the adoption of the final master plan in January.
MetRec District manager Derrick Nehrenberg told the Crested Butte News that the master plan process comes at an opportune time to line up with the local municipalities’ land use planning efforts, and he stressed that the master plan’s implementation will rely heavily on collaboration and partnerships from the local governments and community.
“One of our big goals is to figure out how MetRec can best be a regional partner. We’re not expecting to come up with specific deliverables on specific sites, but we hope this will help us figure out how to be most helpful. We’re here to work strategically with the towns of Crested Butte and Mt. Crested Butte, City of Gunnison, and county to figure it all out.”
Nehrenberg also hopes the master plan helps people better understand MetRec’s role in capital construction, nonprofit operation support and community grants, as well as its potential for the future. “While we don’t own any facilities now, we could at some point,” he said. “The master plan will reveal what we are now and what we can become through a collaborative, holistic approach.”
Nehrenberg said MetRec has allotted $230,000 for the master planning process, as part of its $962,341 budgeted recreation expenditures this year. The majority of MetRec’s recreation expenditures go toward capital, operations and community grants. Nehrenberg said the board received 39 grant applications this spring and has budgeted approximately $727,000 for 2024 grants. The board plans to award grants on May 29.
Initial community feedback
In 2023, MetRec issued a strategic recreation needs assessment survey to help guide grant funding decisions and strategic planning, including the master plan. MetRec received more than 1,000 responses, with 642 responses from community members in the northern subdistrict.
Nehrenberg said responses show a valley-wide consensus that outdoor recreation is important, available and regularly enjoyed, but availability for indoor recreation is low.
Of the top outdoor recreation needs, 54% of respondents said there is a need for more recreation paths, 33% for improved trailheads, 32% for improved summer trails, and 26% for improved transit to trailheads.
For top indoor recreation needs, 30% expressed a need for more space for games, sports and practice, 30% for more space for swimming and 28% for improved fitness equipment.
Nehrenberg emphasized that MetRec will be open to community input throughout the whole master plan development process. “We are open to suggestions all the way through the draft master plan and even before we pass the final version,” he said. “We want to figure out the needs and opportunities, and the pathways to fill them. People will have the opportunity to let their voices be heard and we want to hear from them. I encourage everyone to keep their ears peeled for updates and to engage MetRec.”
