Starkville’s current public park system will only provide about half of the acreage needed to support the city’s projected 2020 population and needs to add about 150 acres to meet demands in the next 20 years, a draft of master planning efforts states.
Leaders and residents received the first look at Dalhoff Thomas Design Studio’s draft of its Starkville Parks and Recreation Department’s master plan Wednesday during two sessions at City Hall.
A final report is expected to come before aldermen next month.
Dalhoff Thomas’ draft, which was built using the firm’s inventory of the park system and public input gathered during multiple spring sessions, recommends the city develop a large community park in southeast Starkville, two mini-parks north and south of Highway 12 and four neighborhood parks around the city’s northern, western and southern periphery.
Developing these facilities and utilizing space-sharing agreements with Starkville-Oktibbeha Consolidated School District playgrounds will allow SPRD to cover a majority of areas zoned for residential development, planners said.
The report also recommended changes to SPRD’s organizational chart. Specifically, planners recommended streamlining Director Herman Peters’ job by hiring a director of maintenance operations and director of recreation and sports.
Those positions would handle their respective fields and report directly to Peters. Currently, all SPRD functions and departments report to the director.
Mayor Parker Wiseman said the board of aldermen will continue to look into the city’s long-term needs but has an ample ability to tackle other recommendations in the short-term, including providing Americans with Disability Act compliance to all parks, playgrounds and parking facilities, performing facility assessments, inspecting playgrounds for safety issues, enhancing security and improving maintenance.
“It’s critical that right now we sense the full gravity of the inspiration that is offered by what we can be several years down the road but we don’t become daunted by the enormity of the task,” he said. “It’s not something that we can accomplish overnight.”
Planners also recommended Starkville build a tournament-level sports complex, which could bring in significant outside revenue to the community.
Public support for the facility was high in Dalhoff and Thomas’ input sessions. More than 80 percent of those attending the meetings and 60 percent of those who took an online survey agreed such a facility would benefit the city.
Using set metrics — a 64-team tournament where approximately 75 percent of visitors are local and 25 percent require hotel stays — planners estimated a proposed eight-field baseball facility could initially attract 2,304 visitors and generate $71,677 in new money for the city.
That figure is conservative, planners said, and the city has the potential to generate almost $500,000 in new money if the traveler ratio is adjusted to national averages used by the National Association of Sports Commissioners and Smith Travel Research.
A 12-field baseball complex, they said, could initially generate $107,000 in new money and optimistically reach a full potential of $740,275.
Improved soccer facilities could also generate up to $433,589 during large tournaments, they said.
Maintenance identified as an issue
A majority of the 101 residents that participated in public input sessions and those that answered online studies said SPRD is plagued with maintenance issues.
Almost half of those participants rated the system’s maintenance as “poor,” while 32 percent said it was “fair,” according to Dalhoff Thomas’ report.
When choosing the system’s top three problems, maintenance again scored the highest (28 percent) and was closely followed by funding (24 percent) and quality of facilities (17 percent).
Overall, the system received better reviews. Almost 77 percent of respondents rated SPRD as “good” or “fair,” while 16 percent gave it a “poor” designation.
While participants said city should upgrade and maintain its current facilities, more than 90 percent said expanding and creating public greenways and new walking, hiking and biking trails was a top desire in the community.
Participants also called for new multipurpose and baseball fields, basketball and tennis courts and a skate park.
Almost three-fourths of those polled online said they would be willing to pay a higher user or participation fee to help financially support the system and almost 52 percent said they would support a tax increase if it was spent toward SPRD maintenance and future growth.
A majority of those same participants said non-Starkville residents should pay a higher user or participation fee to access SPRD’s programs.
Ward 4 Alderman Jason Walker said the overall report is the first step needed to make SPRD a great system for those who live in town and those who visit Starkville for sporting events and other functions.
“Now, it’s a matter of realizing we have a lot of deficiencies but also a lot of opportunities,” he said. “This fiscal year is the time for us to act on some of these things.”
Carl Smith covers Starkville and Oktibbeha County for The Dispatch. Follow him on Twitter @StarkDispatch
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