Council sees draft parks plan identifying surplus of grass, pools

CASPER, Wyo.— The Casper City Council got a first look at a draft plan for the future of Casper’s parks and outdoor recreation facilities at a work session on Tuesday, Sept. 10.

The RDG Planning and Design study comes after nearly a year of study and close coordination with the city’s parks, recreation and leisure department. Compared to other places, the study found that Casper has a surplus of outdoor pools and a deficit of quality practice fields. It also found that city staff were overextended and understaffed for maintenance. 

One recommendation was that some of the 251 acres of grass in the city’s 93 parks could replaced with low-growing, low maintenance native grasses. City Manager Carter Napier told Oil City News earlier on Tuesday that city groundskeepers are virtually the only visitors to some park areas.

Given that some parks could stand less maintenance or be divested altogether, RDG said. Given the quality condition of the Matthew Canfield Park in north Casper, the older park at Marion Kreiner could be scrapped to make way for a new skate park, said Parks, Recreation, and Leisure Services Director Zulima Lopez.

“Some of the recommendations may not be easy to hear with regard to the city of Casper’s assets,” Napier told council at the start of the meeting.

The report identified Washington Park pool as an amenity the council may consider for elimination, as the city would need to charge about $18-20 per user to recover costs.

“We’re not not saying close it,” RDG consultant Scott King told the council. “What we’re saying is when the investment is to a point that it’s going to require a considerable sum of money, or there’s safety issues, you may want to consider closing that and replacing that with another aquatic amenity like a splash pad, which has a considerably lower operational cost.”

King and fellow RDG consultant Ryan Peterson described their work as “a slate of recommendations” that the city could adopt into its long-term parks plan. There are over 900 recommendations. Some are projects that could be accomplished in the next five years, others in the next 20. 

RDG said the 11-month study included 20 user group meetings, a steering committee, a survey with over 900 respondents, and on-site visits to the city’s parks, trails, playgrounds, parking lots, benches, shelters, landscaping, and 47 sports fields.

Based on demand trends, RDG says Casper is short about three quality ball fields and three soccer practice fields, which could serve other uses like flag football leagues.  Some facilities are over 60 years old. The wider public, especially those who might travel to Casper as a recreation destination, has “high expectations,” Petersen said. 

RDG also suggested Casper had to room to grow with recreational leagues, facilities and structured programming for teens and seniors, and a standardized lighting scheme across all parks

Petersen further suggested paid-entry, “tier-two” dog parks with a range of equipment and features. The city could also stand to amp up its messaging around issues specific to dog park etiquette, Petersen said.

The findings identified an increasing interest from 2013-2022 in hiking, mountain biking, and swimming, as well as a 276.5% increase in pickleball interest.

An executive summary of that report was included in council’s info packet for the work session. A full reported is expected to be posted online Wednesday. Council said it was excited to dig into the full report previewed on Tuesday. Napier said he hoped the city would formally adopt the plan as a guiding document this fall.