TL/DR –
The City of Asheville has approved funding for a comprehensive parks and recreation plan known as “Recreate Asheville: Shaping Our City’s Parks”. The plan, aimed to guide the next decade or more of decision-making for Asheville Parks & Recreation, includes three phases: assessing the community’s needs, drafting recommendations and developing a strategic action plan. The department is now seeking public feedback through focus groups, a citywide survey, public workshops, and open house workshops scheduled for October.
Revamping Asheville Parks: A Community-Centric Approach
Asheville’s parks, from Carrier Park to Swannanoa Greenway, are cherished community spaces. Earlier this year, the City of Asheville announced it will be investing in a comprehensive parks and recreation plan, called Recreate Asheville: Shaping Our City’s Parks, with a focus on community needs and feedback.
This plan aims to guide the next decade of development and decision-making for Asheville Parks & Recreation (APR). The department is now seeking your input to shape this strategic initiative.
Three-Phase Community Assessment
The first phase of Recreate Asheville involves understanding community needs through focus groups, citywide surveys, and public workshops. This phase will continue until winter, followed by phase two, where the gathered insights will be used to draft recommendations for the City.
The draft recommendations will be shared with the public and City advisory groups between winter and spring 2024. Afterwards, APR will present a finalized strategic action plan to the City Council for adoption, projecting the final adoption to occur by summer 2024.
Join the Conversation
APR is organizing four open house workshops in October for public feedback. Each session will include fun activities for children along with transit vouchers for ART bus riders.
You can join either of the following sessions:
- Thursday, Oct. 5, 5-7 p.m. at WNC Nature Center
- Friday, Oct. 6, 8 a.m.-12 p.m. at Dr. Wesley Grant Sr. Southside Community Center
- Monday, Oct. 9, 2-6 p.m. at Linwood Crump Shiloh Community Center
- Thursday, Oct. 12, 5-7 p.m. at Carrier Park (Spanish interpretation available)
You can also share your thoughts via the online survey open until Monday, Nov. 20, or interact with the APR team at local events like farmers markets and festivals.
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