Comprehensive Plan Connection

Master Plan for Recreation, Parks, Trails, and Open Space:

Developing a comprehensive recreation and open space master plan fulfills the directive to update Townwide and site-specific plans, providing clear priorities for future investments. The Town currently has Master Plans for Recreation Facilities, Trails, Rodeo Grounds/Chiago Ranch, and River Park, but most of these plans are simply a list of projects with little community input into the process. The updated Master Plan would build off of all of these existing plans, but crucially also dive into future funding possibilities.

This project develops a new, comprehensive master plan that brings together the Town’s past recreation, parks, and trails planning work into a single guiding document. It will establish clear priorities for park improvements, trail connectivity, open space preservation, and future facility investment, ensuring coordinated decision-making and efficient use of funding across the next decade. The Recreation Department would like to solicit a consultant to lead a master planning process for recreation, parks, trails, and open space. The consultant would conduct community outreach, community surveys, and stakeholder conversations to build a plan for the future development of recreation in Buena Vista.

• RL Big Idea 5: Recreation & Trails planning
  • RL Action 5A: Update the Buena Vista Recreation and Trails Master Plans
  • RL Action 5C: Regularly update site-specific recreation master plans

Building on the Past: A Roadmap for Future Recreation InvestmentThis project ties together a decade of recreation and trail planning into one actionable, modern roadmap for future investment. The new master plan will combine all of these into one unified framework with project phasing, cost estimates, and clear implementation actions.

• The 2015 Trails and 2016 Recreation Master Plans both outline key connectivity and facility goals, but they’re now due for consolidation.
• The Recreation Facilities Master Plan (2019) refined project priorities but lacked a full open space and trails integration.
• The 2020 River Park Master Plan and 2022 Parks & Trails Inventory add recent data and site-level conditions that should guide new priorities.