South Service Area Master Plan will guide development of south Minneapolis neighborhood parks for the next 20-30 years after final commissioner approval

On Sept. 28, 2016, Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board (MPRB) Commissioners approved the South Service Area Master Plan (SSAMP), a document that details a 20-30-year vision for all neighborhood park properties south of Downtown Minneapolis and east of I-35W. Collectively, the neighborhood park plans will guide spending on park improvements at 32 south Minneapolis park properties for many years to come.

Minneapolis has a long tradition of planning, designing and redesigning its parks across the MPRB’s 133-year history. Several years ago the MPRB recognized it needed to rethink neighborhood parks and set a vison for remaking them in the image of the communities that surround them.

The timing took on even greater importance when the 20 Year Neighborhood Park Plan (NPP-20) passed earlier this spring. After years of chronically underfunded neighborhood parks in Minneapolis, NPP-20 will provide an additional $11 million annually over the next 20 years to fix them up. The SSAMP and four upcoming service area master plans (Downtown, North, Southwest and Northeast/Southeast) will collectively guide outdoor capital improvements to reconstruct or build new playgrounds, aquatic facilities, athletic fields, hard surface courts and some amenities new to the neighborhood parks, like climbing walls and adult fitness areas. RecQuest, an ongoing project designed to comprehensively assess MPRB recreation centers and programming, will direct any improvements to recreation centers.

These master plans will also allow the MPRB to leverage addition financial resources by inspiring and then directing outside philanthropy and grant funding. This vision will – like the parks themselves – bring communities together to imagine and then build the future of Minneapolis’s neighborhood parks. Ultimately, these plans ensure the MPRB uses its increased funding on things that are important to the people who use neighborhood parks.

 

The South Service Area Master Plan

Click the link above to view the entire SSAMP. Below is a list of every park property included. Due to the size of the document, the park master plans were divided alphabetically into five sections: Parks A-E, Parks H-Ma, Parks Mc-N, Parks P-R, Parks S-T. Click on a park property and scroll to find its individual master plan. Each individual master plan includes sections detailing the property’s location and history, existing conditions and character, connections between parks, proposed design, land use and coordination issues, planning process and cost estimate for park improvements and operations.

 

Adams Triangle Corcoran Park Keewaydin Park Morris Park Phelps Field Park Shoreview Triangles (3)
Bossen Field Park Currie Park Longfellow Park Murphy Square Phillips Community Center Sibley Park
Bracket Field Park Diamond Lake Park Matthews Park Normanna Triangle Powderhorn Park Soloman Park
Cedar Avenue Field Park East Phillips Park McRae Park Pearl Park Rollins Triangle Stewart Park
Central Gym Park Hiawatha School Park Meridian Garden Peavy Field Park Seven Oaks Oval Todd Park

 

It’s important to note all service area master plans only cover neighborhood park properties, not regional park properties. Neighborhood parks are smaller, primarily funded by local tax dollars and predominantly serve nearby residents, while regional parks like Nokomis-Hiawatha, Minnehaha and Mississippi Gorge serve many people from outside Minneapolis and rely on funds from the state and other public agencies serving broad constituencies.

 

Community Engagement and Racial Equity

The SSAMP is the result of two years of community participation in designing the south service area parks. The MPRB and its partners – neighborhood organizations, community service organizations, stakeholder groups and interested citizens – hosted more than 100 engagement activities ranging from formal meetings to community design workshops to spontaneous walks through the park.

At the core of the community engagement was the 19-member Community Advisory Committee (CAC), a group of community members appointed by MPRB Commissioners, City Council Members and Neighborhood Organizations. The CAC met 11 times as a group and individuals serving on it participated in many other engagement events. Many CAC members also connected directly with their networks and neighbors to bring valuable insight to the planning process.

Throughout the process, the MPRB made significant efforts to reach out to community members often left out of planning processes, namely people of color and recent immigrants. Translators were on hand at many engagement events and concept drawings included minimal labeling and legends in three languages. MPRB staff attended neighborhood events that draw large populations of these groups, like Open Streets on Franklin Avenue and community picnics in housing developments with high East African populations, and park events known to draw attendance from within communities of color, such as Zumba classes at Powderhorn and open gym basketball nights at Central.

All of this was done in an effort to ensure that the planning process was open and equitable, and to go beyond business-as-usual community engagement. Of course there is always room for improvement, and MPRB staff will take what it learned and apply it when developing future service area master plans.

This fall, a draft of the Downtown Service Area Master Plan will open for a 45-day public comment period. In 2017, work on the North Service Area Master Plan will formally begin, followed by the Southwest and Northeast/Southeast Service Areas.

To get involved in any of these upcoming service area master plans, please contact Adam Arvidson, MPRB’s Director of Strategic Planning, at aarvidson@minneapolisparks.org or 612-230-6470.