(Seguin) — The city of Seguin has unveiled its new parks master plan, which includes new park space, upgrades to existing parks and trails, and also the need for more recreational facilities and programs.
The comprehensive plan was put together by Stantec Consulting Services, which was hired by the city to develop the plan. Mark Maldonado, a Seguin native who works for Stantec, worked with staff and the community to develop a plan for the city’s future parks system.
Maldonado says they spent about seven months putting together the plan, which was officially unveiled during Tuesday night’s meeting of the Seguin City Council. The plan is largely based on feedback that was received from the public. City stakeholders filled out hundreds of surveys that spelled out the kinds of things that the public wanted to see included in the parks system. Based on that feedback, Maldonado says the plan basically focuses on five key areas. The first portion looks at the need for new park space. Maldonado says as the city grows, there will be a need for the city to develop new park and open spaces around the area.
“One of the things that we noticed based on the assessment — it was that the future of Seguin is going to bring more population, more residents and we are expanding to further parts from downtown so we want to make sure that we are accounting for the future and thinking forward. Land accusation is going to be a vital component of that for future parks and amenities. So with that, we want to make sure that the HOA parks for new larger neighborhood developments are required. Another component of that — we want to make sure that we strengthen the subdivisions ordinance and the park dedication ordinance to really give us strong language to make sure parks are accounted for in the future system but also keeping operations in mind potentially implementing kind of an impact fee or a quality of life fee that can help offset some of those operation and long term costs,” said Maldonado.
The second part of the plan focuses on the fact that people said they didn’t just want new parks, but they also wanted major upgrades to some of the city’s existing parks. Maldonado says some of the changes are big, while others could be done relatively easily.
“So as much as some people wanted new parks, a lot of the comments were that ‘we love the current parks that we have. They need to be upgraded.” And, those upgrades might be as simple as park signage. That the park signage was not very clear or the ADA requirements were not up to par or the site furnishings were not consistent from park to park or what not so in general, making sure that we have an action item and kind of a strategy to improve existing park facilities and recreational facilities as well,” said Maldonado.
Maldonado says Manuel Castilla Park, on Guadalupe Street, is one of those existing park areas that would be in line for a major upgrade. He says there’s lots of space there that can be converted into an expanded park area, with new amenities for people to use.
“Manuel Castilla Park is one of those opportunities that we really wanted to hone in on and kind of show you, ‘okay, from a programming standpoint, from a needs standpoint but also from the community feedback, we learned that the citizens want more fields, they want more trails, they want more shade along the trails, more benches, they want crosswalks to cross from one side to another so incorporating all of those elements, ADA accessibility as well — we kind of came up with some concepts,” said Maldonado.
The city’s new parks master plan calls for a new neighborhood park to be built next to the old Juan Seguin School on Dolle Street.
A vacant piece of land near the old Juan Seguin campus on Dolle Street also gets a major upgrade in the parks plan. Maldonado says they really tried to think outside the box when it came to how to best utilize this area, located in a well established west side neighborhood. He says they really tried to focus on things that would bring people together.
“So in this particular concept, we really wanted to showcase all inclusive play and social equality so a couple of the playgrounds right here by the No. 9, those are all of our all inclusive playgrounds where you can have the wheelchair accessibility swings and it’s a playground that’s really for all inclusivity anything from disabled children to autism and everything in between. The large area here at No. 4 is an open festival lawn that is pretty multi-functional where you can have farmers markets with pop up tents or you can just have kite day or what not so we’ve kind of incorporated these opportunities where you can bring in food trucks, bring the community together, have community gardens and capitalize on the existing trail system that runs through to really make this place something unique and different but also cater to the community as well,” said Maldonado.
The site of the old Seguin-Guadalupe County Public Library, on East College Street, would also see some significant improvements. The master plan calls for the property, now called Bauer Park, to become a neighborhood park that would be very welcoming to families in that area. Maldonado says this was again based on the input that they received from the community.
“We were able to kind of come up with this unique concept that really hones in on a playground with a pavilion and a sculpture that plays homage to the old library site so tying back the history to the new and kind of bring everything together as one cohesive vision,” said Maldonado.
When it comes to addressing existing parks, Maldonado says they also wanted to focus a great deal of attention on Max Starcke Park. He says the park needs some connectivity upgrades and some additional features that will make it overall more inviting to the public.
“One of the major things that was missing of Starcke Park was connectivity. The east and the west are really disconnected and not really that but it’s also not inviting to go from one side to the next so we kind of proposed this rendering to really show an opportunity — an opportunity that you can do under the bridge not only with public art but capitalize with signage and lights and make it more pedestrian friendly that allows you to go from one side to the next. Along Starcke Park, down River Road adjacent to the Guadalupe River maybe closing off that road and doing a trail head here where you can really kind of experience that loop system there — have wide trails that capitalize on the Guadalupe River on the scenic environment that aren’t high maintenance necessarily that capitalize on the natural landscape there along the river banks but tying in with the branding and the signage that you can kind of see throughout the different parks system,” said Maldonado.
The third portion of the plan takes a look at the need to develop partnerships that would help to create additional recreational opportunities, including a large recreational facility. Maldonado says these partnerships would be essential to developing programs and learning opportunities for new recreational areas.
“If we add new athletic fields, seizing those opportunities for recreational partnerships with either private or public organizations but also teaming up with like organizations such as the Master Naturalists to really kind of have an educational component to it. So, we have learning gardens or natural prairies — have the educational component behind it so that it’s just not a playground or it’s not just a garden. It’s another layer that is added to it where schools and ISDs and families can kind of have that unique learning experience,” said Maldonado.
The potential rec center was the next big discussion in the plan. Maldonado says the recreation center could include things, like an indoor and outdoor pool. Maldonado says this multi-purpose facility would likely be very expensive to build and maintain, but he says it could offer a number of amenities and programs that the community would enjoy. However, before they jump into this idea, he says there are some things that need to be carefully considered.
“Our recommendation is to conduct a feasibility or due diligence study to see if Seguin and the market can support a recreational facility. So before we spend the $15-$25 million plus — making sure that we go through the right channel to set us up for success. So, doing the feasibility study, determining what kind of programming elements that are going to be there and what is needed. So, we’ve mentioned some of the recreational programming so maybe tying that component into here. Having the indoor or outdoor aquatics as an additional amenity for the city was another big component that we heard from our public engagement . But lastly, creating a taskforce that could really talk to the different organizations and teaming up with the Seguin ISD, teaming up with Navarro ISD, teaming up with TLU, exploring partnership opportunities to see, okay well how do we think outside the box? How can we get this built but also how can we cater to the entire community of Seguin?” said Maldonado.
The fifth and final study area focused on the need to develop additional trails and trail connections in Seguin. Maldonado says giving non-vehicular traffic more opportunities to traverse Seguin is an important feature that people said that they would like to see in future park plans.
The plan for Bauer Park includes a playground area, and the creation of a sculpture that ties the site in to the old public library building that used to be housed there on East College Street.
“We did some extensive research to really look at trail opportunities, connectivity points and identifying where those fragments are and how can we really think long term? How do we get people from Highway 46 to Starcke Park that can either do a hike and bike trail or maybe it’s a series of events but getting people the option of an alternative to vehicular mobility,” said Maldonado.
The parks plan was slated to be released last month, but it was so comprehensive that staff worked with Stantec to pare it down and make it a little easier for the council and the public to digest. The plan not only includes drawings and details for potential park and trail improvements, but it also outlays some funding strategies for the various projects that are included. Maldonado says it would be impossible for the city to tackle all of those projects on their own. That’s why partnerships, including grant funding, need to be sought to make some of the park dreams a reality. The draft of the plan was presented to the council on Tuesday. The public will have an additional opportunity to see and comment on the plan, before it’s adopted by the Seguin Parks and Recreation Advisory Board and the Seguin City Council in the coming weeks.