Rice County wants you to take their parks, recreation & open space survey

I got an email this week from Brad Behrens, Environmental Technologist with Rice County Environmental Services (Planning and Zoning Dept), about their current Rice County Parks, Recreation & Open Space Survey.

It’s only a two-pager and be completed in less than 5 minutes, so take it! (Text below is from this news item):

Parks surveyRice County is in the process of updating the Rice County Comprehensive Parks, Recreation and Open Space Plan. The Plan will include a full assessment of Rice County Parks as well as an inventory of all existing park and recreation opportunities in all of Rice County (incorporated areas as well as unincorporated areas).

The plan will also include the development of policies to assure park and trail access, encourage use of parks and trails for physical activity, provide information about facilities to all residents and provide for integration of county-owned parks and trails with other recreational facilities in Rice County. This plan will address three questions: Where are we now? Where should we go? And how do we get there?

As a part of this plan update process, Rice County would like to hear from people who live and work in Rice County as to their park usage and recreational needs. A survey has been developed to gather information that will be beneficial in guiding the development of the comprehensive parks, recreation and open space plan.

7 Comments

  1. Griff Wigley said:

    There was an open house on the draft of the Rice County Comprehensive Parks, Recreation and Open Space Plan back in Sept.

    I missed it and when I checked yesterday, the draft was not yet posted online. So I wrote to Julie Runkel, Environmental Services Director, to inquire. She replied:

    Hi Griff –

    The Rice County Parks & Facilities Director resigned about the time we were going to post the plan and the county decided to redesign our website. We decided to wait until the new Parks person came on board to help finalize the draft document. The new person will be starting in December so we hope to have the draft finalized for posting by late December/early January.

    The new web design will also allow us a better opportunity to receive public input via online. There will also be a public hearing at the Planning Commission sometime prior to the Board actually adopting the Plan. We will release another press release once the plan is actually posted to the website and online input is available.

    Thank you for your interest.

    Julie

    November 29, 2011
  2. Griff Wigley said:

    Still no draft posted. Still no updated website. I inquired a week ago but no response yet.

    February 21, 2012
  3. Griff Wigley said:

    I spoke today to Julie Runkel, Planning & Zoning Director for Rice County. She said the Rice County Comprehensive Parks, Recreation and Open Space Plan is due to go to the Board in May for the scheduling of public hearings in June.

    April 11, 2012
  4. Griff Wigley said:

    Mark your calendar for 7 pm on June 7.

    In yesterday’s Fbo Daily News: Rice County’s open space plan sets course for future

    A public hearing to discuss the report and its findings is scheduled for Thursday, June 7 at 7 p.m. at the Rice County Planning Commission meeting at the Rice County Government Services building.

    May 31, 2012
  5. Griff Wigley said:

    I don’t see a Draft copy of the parks plan on the Rice County website. And I don’t see any announcement for online public input. I’ll see what I can find out.

    May 31, 2012
  6. Griff Wigley said:

    For those of you who are mountain bikers and who might attend the public hearing or who want to submit a formal public comment, consider emphasizing:

    * how parks around the state (eg, Dakota County, Three Rivers, the DNR) are building erosion-resistant, single-purpose, one way, flow trails for mountain biking. One problem with the Draft is that it talks about multi-use trails for hiking and biking. That won’t work for mountain biking.

    * that these types of mountain bike trails PREVENT unauthorized trails that do environmental damage

    * that Rice County now has two bike clubs with enough members interested in mountain biking (Faribault Flyers, Cannon Valley Velo Club) that the County could develop a formal partnership to help build, maintain, and police the mtb trails

    June 4, 2012

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