Park System Master Plan

The Park System Master Plan (PSMP) is a road map for planning and completing park improvements and guiding capital investments to ensure the park system serves the needs of the community today and in the future. The PSMP process incorporates local and national park and recreation trends, community demographics, facility needs, current and future programming needs, maintenance, long term sustainability, equity and information gathered from the community. It is the foundation for future decision-making, program planning, budgeting and park system investments.

Through studies and analysis we learned the following:

• Our parks are substantially similar
• Our parks have outdated amenities
• Our parks do not match current resident demographics and recreation needs
• New facilities and amenities are needed for current residents and to attract new residents.

The extensive community engagement process over the past year and a half, which included a statistically valid survey, stakeholder interviews, listening sessions, conversations with residents and staff, and online interactive engagement via project bloom! and the City’s Let’s Talk Bloomington site, has shaped the preliminary plan.

The PSMP includes four primary sections:

1. Our City + Our Parks: Vision, Mission, Guiding Principles
2. The Parks Bloomington Has: History, Needs
3. The Parks Bloomington Needs: Engagement Summary, Local and Regional Trends
4. How We Get There: Capital Improvement Plan (CIP) Approach, Action Plan

Through June 21, 2021, residents, City of Bloomington staff, members of City Council and commissions, and other stakeholders provided substantive input on these four plan sections and specific areas of interest including natural resources and environmental sustainability, mountain biking, Minnesota River Valley recreation and management, and the general flow of information in the plan document.

Staff are curating this feedback and providing direction to the consultant team on revisions. But because of the depth and breadth of input, additional time is required to produce the final draft for review by the Parks, Arts and Recreation Commission (PARC) and subsequent approval by the Bloomington City Council. Originally, the plan was scheduled for review by PARC at its July 14 meeting and Council at its August 2 meeting. PARC will now review the plan on August 11 and Council will consider it for approval on August 30.

Although the public comment period closed on Monday, June 21, you can still view the draft Plan sections by clicking the links below. There are also additional documents, studies, reports and a summary video in the navigation bar on the right side of this page to help further explain the plan and the process which brought us to where we are today.