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McALLEN — The city is currently five years into a 10-year plan to revamp its park and recreational areas. As such, officials here want to hear how residents feel about the quality of life amenities McAllen offers, and what they’d like to see in the future.
To that end, the city hosted a series of informal town halls this week to encourage residents to fill out a brief survey and to get a better idea of where to focus their efforts next.
“We are here tonight to provide you with an update — a five-year update — on our parks and recreation master plan,” McAllen Parks and Recreation Director Denny Meline explained to residents who attended one such town hall at the Lark Community Center on Thursday evening.
The residents were joined by McAllen Commissioners Victor “Seby” Haddad, Rodolfo “Rudy” Castillo and Joaquin “J.J.” Zamora, as well as Assistant City Manager Joe Vera.
Several other parks and rec personnel also attended the workshop, as did Sally Gavlik, the consultant who first helped McAllen create its current master plan in 2017.
Gavlik explained that a well-developed master plan is crucial if a municipality hopes to secure state and federal funding for future improvements.
It’s also a specific requirement for any grant applications to the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, she said.
“Parks and Wildlife requires that the department has a 10-year master plan, that it has to be updated at the five years, and then at the end of the 10-year period, a new master plan has to be developed,” Gavlik said.
McAllen is at that midpoint now — at the moment when it must pause to take the community’s pulse on the progress it’s made so far before continuing on.
In 2017, residents helped McAllen identify 10 top priorities for improvement, according to Sarai Garcia, deputy director of operations for the department.
Among those were the natatorium, splash pads, better trails and playground equipment, improved lighting, creation of an indoor recreation center and dog parks, as well as better park maintenance.
The city has come a long way toward addressing those goals over the last five years, as Garcia illustrated by reading off dozens of projects McAllen has ticked off on its “to do” list.
That includes renovating the municipal pool and bathhouse, upgrading the HVAC systems at Palmview and Lark community centers, expanding or improving walking trails at nearly half a dozen parks or trail systems, making picnic areas at Bill Schupp Park accessible, and building an inclusive playground at Los Encinos Park.
During Thursday’s town hall, one resident broached the topic of increasing accessibility.
“How are you 100% sure that the park is totally, totally inclusive for people with disabilities,” asked Juan Carlos Lopez.
Lopez, who has cerebral palsy and uses a wheelchair, urged city officials to include people with disabilities in their planning discussions.
“A person with a disability can tell you what needs to be fixed so the park can be totally inclusive,” he said.
Another resident asked about potential opportunities for private-public partnerships or other sorts of multi-agency collaborations, particularly for city-owned sports venues.
“When you talk about sports facilities … those can develop into sports tourism,” Richard Sanchez said.
Later, a teen — perhaps the youngest person to attend Thursday’s workshop — asked if officials had considered partnering with local schools so that students can learn about volunteerism.
Finally, one woman asked about the city’s commitment to its green spaces.
Though the master plan survey does include questions regarding nature spaces, the woman said she felt they were not high enough priorities for the city.
“I don’t see anything on here about the McAllen Nature Center on your budget, or the Green Jay Park,” Gloria Galindo said, adding that the nature center once teemed with staff and volunteers eager to educate residents about the Rio Grande Valley’s native flora and fauna.
Galindo also expressed concern for the McAllen Disc Golf Course, which was once known as Green Jay Park.
The city recently came under fire when it began the process to rezone the city-owned park from “agricultural” to “light use industrial.”
In April, officials paused the rezoning efforts in the wake of the community pushback, though McAllen City Manager Roel “Roy” Rodriguez said the city was working with an as-yet unnamed developer to create a presentation for residents to better understand the site’s potential.
To date, the city has yet to publicly broach the topic again.
Nonetheless, for residents like Galindo, preserving as much unspoiled green space as possible is just as important as any of the other priorities residents spoke of Thursday.
“If you don’t promote natural areas, you’re not going to achieve this — a superior quality of life in McAllen — without our green spaces,” Galindo said.
The city will continue to collect survey responses through the end of June. Once collected, the Parks and Recreation Department will present their priorities list to the McAllen City Commission sometime this fall.
“How the department comes up with the top 10 categories is through the surveys that you all have to fill out,” Gavlik said.
“We currently have over 650 surveys that have been turned in. We would like to have over a thousand,” she added.
