Kings Mountain works on master parks and recreation plan
Kings Mountain is looking ahead to its future and what it wants to provide residents for recreation opportunities as the city experiences new growth.
The city is in the process of creating a master parks and recreation plan and has been seeking community and staff input through drop-in meetings and surveys.
City Manager Jim Palenick said the city has contracted with McGill and Associates to fully deveop a long-term comprehensive plan.
“We’re now well into that process,” he said during this week’s City Council meeting.
James Ford, McGill & Associates, project planner, said having a plan is “super important."
"This plan seeks to capture in time who we are, what are were desires, what do we have and what do we want to be moving toward into the future," he said.
Ford said they have been collecting public input and provided to council the next steps in the process and timeline for the project.
Ford said once all survey results are in, they will analyze the data, share the findings with a steering committee and by the end of March, begin formulating recommendations. A draft will be presented to the steering committee for input before a plan is finalized and presented to the public.
He said they began by taking inventory of what the city and county offered for recreation and a current list of facilities.
“We know that we’re growing. We know that North Carolina is growing," he said. "Everyone realized how important it is to live in a wonderful place with strong communities and now we’re faced with how to deal with that growth."
He said there are just under 12,000 people in the city.
According to McGill’s findings, he said the people who live in Kings Mountain typically stay in Kings Mountain.
Ford said they had a 6.6% survey response rate, which is promising.
In addition to community meetings, city staff also had focus group meetings.
He said there were several things that rose to the top of the list of things residents wanted.
Ford said a community center was number one. Other requests were a dog park, paved, multi-purpose trails, pickleball courts and a gymnasium.
He said the focus group meetings revealed a desire for athletic fields of all types along with facilities to host tournaments and walkable recreation destinations.
Ford said people would like to see the recreation Kings Mountain does have - such as Patriots Park and the Gateway Trail - to be improved and upgraded.
He spoke about grants and funding sources and said having a plan is critical when applying for those grants.
Reporter Rebecca Sitzes can be reached at rsitzes@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on The Shelby Star: Kings Mountain works on master parks and recreation plan
