Wasilla council to vote Monday on $200,000 contract to replace 2011 parks plan

The Wasilla City Council will vote Monday, Oct. 26, on a $200,000 contract with Corvus Design to write a new Parks and Recreation Master Plan, replacing one the city adopted in 2011.

The council meeting packet says the plan would set a community-driven, 20-year framework for improving the city's parks and recreation facilities. It calls for public engagement, an assessment of recreation buildings and maintenance practices, conceptual park layouts, rough cost estimates and grant and partnership strategies. The city has more than 240 acres of parks and about 10 miles of bike trails.

The contract splits into $40,000 for mapping park assets in the city's GIS system and $160,000 for the plan itself. It lets the city add design and engineering work later as funding becomes available. The packet says this award does not commit the city to funding future design or construction.

Public Works Director Erich Schaal told the Planning Commission in a Sept. 22 memo that the plan will help the city define projects, estimate costs, phase work over time and bring well-developed projects forward when grant opportunities arise. He said the Corvus team held a kickoff meeting that week and expects planning to take about a year, with several chances for public input. Alaska News reported Sept. 2 that the city was preparing to hire firms for both its parks and road plans.

At that Sept. 22 meeting, Crystal Nygaard, then acting city planner, said "at some point the city's going to have to have a real conversation about the cost of parks. And can we keep funding them with a sales tax?"

The Planning Commission takes up a supporting resolution Tuesday, Oct. 27. The draft resolution says the city has grown and changed considerably since 2011 and that a new plan would position it for state, federal and private grants.

Both meetings begin at 6 pm at City Hall.