OROVILLE – The City of Oroville will hold a public workshop on Monday, Oct. 23 to gather public input as it prepares to update its Park, Recreation and Open Space (PROS) Plan.

The workshop will be held at the Oroville American Legion Post at 314 14th Ave. beginning at 6 p.m. It will feature a short presentation providing background on the planning effort and information collected to date. The remainder of the workshop features listening stations designed to allow the public to provide their opinions on the city’s parks that will be used to refine goals and objectives for the parks and identify desired improvements.

In mid-summer, Oroville began updating its PROS Plan, which is required to maintain eligibility for grant funding from the Recreation and Conservation Office (RCO).

The planning effort is being funded with a planning grant from the RCO. The current Park Plan was last updated in 2010 with eligibility for development grants expiring in 2016. The city has retained SCJ Alliance to assist in preparing the plan along with Highlands Associates, the City’s contract planner.

An ad hoc group has been formed, comprised of the Mayor and Council Parks Committee members, Public Works Director, City Staff, Chris Overdorf from SCJ, Kurt Danison from Highlands Associates and members of The Oroville Initiative (TOI). Four meetings have been held to get the update process underway. The group’s first task was creating and administrating a community needs and assessment survey to provide insight into who uses the city’s parks, which parks get the most use, and what type of improvements and activities are desired. Group members have been instrumental in distributing the survey throughout the community and encouraging folks to go to the city’s website and complete the survey online. The survey results are a key component to performing a demand and need analysis that is a required part of the Parks, Recreation and Open Space (PROS) Plan. The results of the survey will be shared at the Oct. 23rd workshop.

The city and committee are presently working on an inventory of the parks and condition ratings (e.g., poor, fair, reasonable, etc.) for all facilities, e.g., boat ramps, playfields, play equipment, restrooms, etc. The inventory is another required piece of the PROS plan and provides a baseline of current conditions and identifies existing deficiencies. The results of the inventory will also be shared at the workshop.

The most important parts of the plan, including the Goals and Policies, Project Actions and Capital Improvement Plans, will be drafted over the next several months and will be the subject of subsequent public meetings this winter. The final plan will also be subject to Oroville Planning Commission review and a public hearing before the Oroville City Council before adoption.