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12/18/2009
PEMBROKE PINES, FL -- After a year and an half of work with the City of Oakland Park in developing a long-term strategy for developing its recreation plan, the 220-page document was endorsed unanimously by the City Commission during its regularly scheduled meeting on October 7, 2009.
Miller Legg was selected by the City of Oakland Park in open competition two years ago to prepare its Recreation and Parks Master Plan. The Plan included an extensive data collection and analysis phase culminating in diagnostic reports of opportunities and constraints found within the existing City infrastructure, park facilities, and recreation programming.
A key to the successful development of the Plan was a comprehensive public outreach program consisting of three public workshops and a dedicated website from which opinions were collected and information provided to the public over a nine-month life span. The major recommendations included:
1. Provide additional dry land area as needed to accommodate the need for new facilities and balance the existing short-fall in overall land area as determined by the Comprehensive Land Use Plan. Provide up to 71 additional dry land acres now and a total of 109 acres of dry land by 2030.
2. Provide park land which is easily accessible to residents. Establish at least six (6) new Neighborhood Parks where shown on the Recreation and Parks Master Plan map along with one new large active sports Community Park on the west side of the City, along with three (3) Community Centers totaling up to 50,000 square feet by the year 2030.
3. Add additional facilities to the parks program in accordance with SCORP guidelines as adjusted by community input received in this master planning public outreach process. New soccer fields, tennis courts, tot lots, picnic areas, fresh water boating activities, head a comprehensive list of facilities needed to meet state standards and community need.
4. Establish a common design theme throughout the parks system by developing standard furnishings, signage, park architecture, shade structures, and the like. This will establish an identity for the parks program and provide for a common level of materials quality, maintenance requirements, and funding requirements.
5. Enhance and expand upon use of parks for arts programs. Ideally, this would centralize at the existing Jaco Pastorius Park by upgrading existing structures for art instruction, display of community art, and accommodation of small performances. It is further recommended that a study be conducted to determine the feasibility of developing a larger facility which may support larger indoor performances in the area of Jaco Pastorius Park during the term of implementation of this Master Plan.
6. Funding resources must be established during all phases of implementation. It is recommended that the City either hire or outsource grantsmanship on a continuous basis, using the demands for cash shown in this Plan as performance goals for grant procurement activities. The City should start one phase ahead of the anticipated need for funds to ensure the resources are there when needed.
7. Phasing of costs for the parks development program must recognize that current economic conditions are a short-term phenomenon and should not deter the need to continue a focus on long-term objectives of the plan. Meeting the reality of funding shortages on the near term are met in this plan by employing low-cost techniques of adding facilities through joint use agreements with local schools, adjacent municipalities, and other entities which already have facilities built and available for use by Oakland Park residents.
8. The network of recommended Neighborhood Parks, Community Parks, and Community Centers requires connectivity with each other by establishment of a well designed and safe Urban Trails program. In most cases this would entail upgrading the existing pedestrian walkways in designated street corridors. This provides the added benefit of providing for places for residents to walk; a highly desirable form of recreation in its own right.
The ensuing Master Plan establishes a powerful strategy to significantly increase the Parks land area, recreation facilities, and three new Community Recreation Centers to be distributed in the three major sub-communities of the City of Oakland Park.
The Plan also provides a distribution of land acquisition and facility development over three phases: the years 2015, 2020, and 2030. Costs for Capital Outlay, Staffing, and Operations were also determined and provided for each of these phases along with maps to show where development is to occur. The Master Plan can be found on the City’s website at www.oaklandparkfl.org, as well as on file in the Parks and Leisure Services office and the City Clerk’s office.
George Botner, RLA, AICP, served as Team Project Manager and Mike Kroll, RLA, served as Principal-in-Charge and remained connected with the project throughout its development.
Miller Legg is a 44-year-old multi-disciplinary consulting firm with approximately 100 employees in six locations in Pembroke Pines, Miami, West Palm Beach, Port St. Lucie, Winter Park and North Port, specializing in civil and traffic engineering, surveying, planning, landscape architecture, environmental engineering and environmental consulting services, and GIS.
For further information, contact Kathie Brennan, CPSM at (954) 628-3688
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