Suggestions for strategic plan include timetable for new Johnson County parks

Rieke Lake and Big Bull Creek parks should be the first of Johnson County’s 4,401 acres of undeveloped park land to get access roads, shelters, trails and boat ramps, according to the preliminary recommendations of SWT Design, the firm helping the county park district come up with a new strategic plan.

The firm recommended each of those parks be open to public use within three years.

Representatives of the St. Louis company and the Johnson County Park and Recreation District staff presented their early findings to county residents at an open house Tuesday evening. It was the public unveiling of what has been a monthslong process inviting residents to share their park priorities through surveys and forums.

The eventual aim is for a new park district blueprint for how to care for and develop the county’s park system through 2030. It replaces the 2001 master plan known as MAP 2020.

Ideally, Rieke Lake should have basic infrastructure in place to open in the next two years and Big Bull by the end of 2018, according to the recommendations. Cedar Niles, another large undeveloped area, should be scheduled to open in 2020.

What is considered “basic” to get a park open to the public depends on each park’s own master plan. But generally, it means an access drive, parking, signs, shelter and toilets.

Development of land the county has acquired for parks has been a perennial campaign issue and source of frustration for critics who say the county should not let the land it bought in the 1990s sit idle for so long. Park advocates, however, have said the development has been delayed because there isn’t enough money for ongoing maintenance and operating expenses at the new areas.

The preliminary recommendations presented this week gave a general outline of where the county might focus its first energies. Specifics, like cost estimates and whether the park district can open new parks on its current tax levy, will come later. The more detailed final recommendations should be done in late June or early July, said Jay Wohlschlaeger, partner with SWT.

The county has added about 3,350 acres to its park properties since 2000. But only about 55 percent of all the county’s park land is currently open for public use. That percentage has changed only slightly since 2000, when 57 percent of land was open, the report said.

The lion’s share of that undeveloped land is in Cedar Niles, Rieke Lake and Big Bull Creek.

Rieke Lake is 465 acres, including a 30-acre lake west of De Soto and north of Kansas 10. The preliminary recommendation calls for dam improvements, a lake loop trail, shelter and playground boat ramp and entry drive in the next two years.

Big Bull Creek, which includes roughly 1,933 acres near Edgerton, would get a later start than Rieke Lake because officials have not yet written a master plan for it. The recommendation calls for that to happen by the end of 2016, followed immediately by the construction needed to get it open.

Cedar Niles, a 900-acre area west of Kansas 7 near Lake Olathe, is a good place for streamway development, Wohlschlaeger said. The first phase recommendation for that park is for streamway trails, playground, shelter and restroom and access and parking spots to be built by 2020.

That park also is a priority because of its location in the northwest part of the county, said Wohlschlaeger. “It is an opportunity to serve an area of the county more underserved when it comes to large regional parks,” he said.

Park district Director Jill Geller said she likes the staggered approach the plan takes to the huge job of opening new parks while maintaining older ones. She said phasing in the changes is a realistic way to accomplish the district’s goals.

“I hope it is presented in such a way that we won’t have to take a huge bucket of money out of the gate,” Geller said.

The plan will take public support for additional funding in some form, she said. “Absolutely it takes more funding than we have right now,” Geller said.

Geller said she’d like to see a long-term funding solution that would allow the public to see continual improvements at the parks, rather than a big one-time infusion of cash. A mill levy increase for parks is one possibility, she said.

The plan addresses needs at all of the county’s 9,744 acres of park property and makes suggestions for maintenance and changes at existing parks as well. It also mentions the pending conversion of the former King Louie bowling alley into an art and cultural center and the Meadowbrook Golf and Country Club into a future park. Both those properties were approved recently and have their own timelines.

Paying attention to existing parks is also important, Wohlschlaeger said, because surveys showed residents care about them. “They were very positive surveys, but even though people were happy with (existing parks) that was one area where the highest rating was not as high as other areas,” he said.

Some of the recommendations for existing parks include:

▪ Shawnee Mission Park: Develop a plan for using the quarry and a property on the southern edge of the park. The county also might consider replacing the Mack House with a pavilion for outdoor education and cultural programs.

▪ Ernie Miller Nature Center: Relocate the amphitheater closer to the parking, expand classroom and animal care buildings and develop a wetlands in the heart of the park.

▪ Antioch Park: Replace the maintenance facility or possibly move it to Meadowbrook and improve the rose garden.

▪ Thomas S. Stoll Park: Replace two playgrounds and convert the north softball fields to multi-use. Improvements for parking near the off-leash area are scheduled for this year.

▪ Mid-America Sports Complexes: Renovate some fields and convert others to multi-use.

The plan also emphasized completing links on streamway trails at Kill Creek and developing Coffee Creek, Camp Branch and Cedar Creek trails.

And the plan also called for a change in park security. Currently, park police are headquartered at Shawnee Mission Park. Eventually, the district should set up small “substations” at other parks as well, according to the plan.

This story was originally published April 28, 2015 at 3:17 PM with the headline "Suggestions for strategic plan include timetable for new Johnson County parks."