One of the items that City Manager Sam Sanders has requested during his time in city government has been a master plan for Charlottesville’s Parks and Recreation Department.
That process has now begun and the person leading the work is a familiar face to long-time observers of city government.
“My name is Mike Svetz, a principal with PROS Consulting, a recovering parks and recreation director,” Svetz said. “I did spend about five years with the City of Charlottesville.”
In 2005, PROS Consulting conducted a needs assessment for the city’s parks and recreation department. I’m hoping to find a copy of it, if anyone has one.
Svetz’s tenure from 2004 to 2009 coincided with the development of the John Warner Parkway, which among other things led to the lease of space in McIntire Park to the Piedmont Family YMCA for what was to have been a replacement for Crow Pool. Crow Pool is still open for rental.
In 2023, the firm LPDA has been hired as a subcontractor.
“They have been out assessing an inventory of the entire system,” Svetz said. “This creates a good foundation to give us an understanding of the current system as it exists today and will be a jumping off point for us as we start to talk about improvements for the overall system going forward.”
The process is just getting started with a series of meetings being planned for the future. As possibly expected, there’s a survey to get early input.
“Tell us your likes, your dislikes, your opportunities for improvement, what you like most about the system or a specific park,” Svetz said.
A conceptual image depicting the process for this master plan process (Credit: PROS Consulting)
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