A draft master plan for Colorado Springs’ park system has been posted for review, outlining funding shortages and bold ideas for the future.

The 132-page document comes after more than a year of surveys, meetings and analysis that has been many more years in the works, as officials have come to grips with staffing below pre-recession levels of 2008 and a budget that advocates say has not been able to keep up with demands of a growing population. 

Those demands spread across 18,675 acres of parkland, 326 miles of trails and hundreds more playgrounds, sports fields and courts, not to mention pools, golf courses, community centers, the Pikes Peak Highway and the Colorado Springs Pioneers Museum that the Parks, Recreation and Cultural Services Department also oversees. 

“The central challenge is clear: protect and reinvest in what Colorado Springs already has while preparing responsibly for what comes next,” the draft plan reads. 

The plan proposes a four-phased approach to the next 15 years and updates the park system’s 2014 master plan. While that previous plan outlined specific projects that led to certain neighborhood parks being built, open spaces being acquired and trails being expanded, the new draft plan focuses more on upkeep and resource needs. 

Specific projects are important, said Glenn Carlson, executive director of nonprofit Trails and Open Space Coalition. But “the world changes very quickly, and it’s hard to put very specific things in a master plan document and go tick the boxes off.” 

Especially without the funding — long the main concern of TOSC and other advocacy groups. 

Yes, the new draft plan is different from the 2014 master plan, Carlson said: “It’s a little bit more aggressive than the previous master plan in coming out and just saying, ‘Hey, we do not have the money or the funds to keep up, and here’s what we need moving forward if you want to have a world-class Parks, Recreation and Cultural Services program.'” 

The four-phased approach identifies an annualized funding gap of $52.2 million. That would go toward tackling a deferred maintenance backlog estimated at $125 million and addressing some $657 million “in additional capital investment,” as would be the goal of the second phase meant to “stabilize the system” from 2030-2034. 

The next phase from 2035-2039 calls for expanding recreation and improving trail connectivity. The fourth phase would “deliver transformational investments that elevate the park system while maintaining long-term financial and operational sustainability.” 

It would all start with “building the base” between 2027-2029 — “establish the policy, funding, asset management and organizational foundation necessary to support long-term implementation.” 

As to what that foundation could be, the draft plan lists several possibilities. 

Atop the list: forming a “parks district/special district.” Carlson and other advocates have envisioned something similar to the Pikes Peak Rural Transportation Authority, which is represented by six regional governments that decide on road and transit projects using dedicated sales tax revenues.

“I think we are marching in that direction,” Carlson said. “As Colorado Springs spills into the county more and it spills into Fountain, and it spills into Monument and Manitou, what you’ll find is everybody working in silos. And so the big projects and trail connectivity is not there, because of that silo effect — everybody is dealing with funding and extra administrative costs.”

Other strategies listed: a park foundation or conservancy; endowments or trust funds; voter-approved bonds; and a “realignment or expansion” of the city’s Lodgers and Automobile Rental Tax program, which doles out hotel and car rental tax revenues to tourism-driving events and initiatives. 

Promoting the outdoors as an economic and quality of life driver has been a priority for Nick Ragain. Early this year, the former owner of the Colorado Springs Switchbacks and civic leader was named the director of strategic advancement for Pikes Peak Outdoor Recreation Alliance, which has gained major funding from Great Outdoors Colorado to elevate the region’s destination appeal. 

“If we want to continue exploring these cool new opportunities, the city recognizes it’s got to take care of its business,” Ragain said. “It’s got to fix some of these problems and steward its parks well before it can really get into the conversations we all want to have.”

To fund parks and open spaces, other Front Range municipalities draw from county-wide sales tax revenues, including Douglas, Jefferson, Boulder and Larimer counties. In 1997, Colorado Springs voters approved a similar program collecting a cent for every $10 spent in city boundaries: the Trails, Open Space and Parks program. 

TOPS generates about $12 million annually — a fraction of some of those county programs, advocates have pointed out. And while some praise TOPS funds largely being dedicated to land acquisition, Carlson has seen too much of a limit for maintenance: “We acquire open spaces, but now we can’t take care of them.” 

The Parks Department is also helped by the city’s General Fund. The draft plan reports the park system has nearly doubled in size since 2000 while General Fund support “has remained relatively flat when adjusted for inflation.” 

The draft plan continues: “Maintaining the same level of service provided in 2000 on a per capita expenditure basis would require an estimated $30 million to $33 million annually, compared to the current $17.1 million General Fund allocation.”

The Parks Department benefits from other sources, among them federal and state grants, programming revenues, donations and volunteers. 

Medicine Wheel Trail Advocates “will continue to push the idea that we can improve the existing trail system for free by better utilizing volunteers,” said Cory Sutela, the mountain biking group’s executive director. 

He and longtime volunteers over the past year have pushed back against the Parks Department’s new approach to managing that free labor — through a standard operating procedure that many see as onerous and restrictive. Other controversies have followed the Parks Department in recent years.

Master plans for an expanded Blodgett Open Space and a yet-to-be-developed Fishers Canyon Open Space both riled people living nearby and conservationists. While those were the next recreation efforts focused on the city’s west side, some have seen the east side ignored. In 2021, perhaps voters sent a message by declining to raise TOPS sales tax funding. 

The draft master plan indicates 65.8% of survey takers supported “additional funding for repair or open space/trail protection.” That’s while 66.2% sought “greater transparency regarding funding needs, maintenance priorities and investment decisions.”

Officials are collecting more feedback through a webpage, coloradosprings.gov/ParkSystemMasterPlan, where the draft plan is posted along with information on upcoming meetings. 

The plan will be presented at Thursday’s Parks Board meeting, which starts at 7:30 a.m. Also Thursday, an open house is scheduled for 5 p.m. at Pinon Valley Park’s pavilion. Another open house is set for 5 p.m. Sept. 16 at Parks Department headquarters, 1401 Recreation Way. 

The plan will later be presented to City Council.