On Tuesday, February 4th, 2020, the Bothell City Council unanimously adopted the 2020 Parks, Recreation, and Open Space (PROS) Plan. The PROS Plan is a guiding document for the City’s Parks Department to manage existing park amenities and recreation programs, and provides a 6-10 year plan for potential changes to the department’s offerings.
To ensure the plan reflected the priorities of the Bothell community, staff coordinated a robust community engagement effort, including 18 community outreach events, mailed surveys, online surveys, a dog park survey, a teen-focused survey, and a public workshop. The outreach events were carefully selected to reach a broad cross section of park and recreation users, as well as non-users.
Using the community feedback from this effort and other city plans and guiding documents, staff worked closely with the Parks and Recreation Board to deliver a draft plan to City Council in December of 2019. City Council finalized the plan with six (6) updated goals:
• Provide an inclusive, diversified system of parks, trails, and open spaces that deliver a variety of active and passive recreational opportunities that maintains the high quality of life for residents and reflect the community’s changing needs.
• Develop a network of shared-use trails and bicycle/pedestrian corridors to enable connectivity between parks, neighborhoods, commercial areas, and other destinations.
• Facilitate and promote a range of recreational and special event opportunities for the community.
• Maintain and operate a modern, efficient park system that provides a high level of user comfort, safety, and aesthetic quality, and protects capital investments.
• Pursue and maintain effective partnerships and provide volunteer opportunities to support the parks and recreation system.
• Provide leadership and fiscal responsibility in the management of the park, recreation, and open space system.
“I’m so proud of this effort and the amount of community engagement our Parks team sought to develop such a thorough plan,” Mayor Liam Olsen stated. “It’s important to know where we should focus resources and prioritize our planning efforts.”
The PROS Plan will be incorporated in the Imagine Bothell...Comprehensive Plan with the 2020 amendments. The resolution, full plan, and more background information can be viewed at www.bothellwa.gov/PROS. For questions, contact Tracey Perkosky, Parks Planning and Grants Program Manager, tracey.perkosky@bothellwa.gov.