Agenda - Parks and Recreation Commission - 10/09/2014

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The Council, in collaboration with external partners and stakeholders, will develop a Council -wide equity lens to use to evaluate its operations, planning, and investments. The developed equity lens will serve as a base for creating an equity lens specific to the Regional Parks System, which will be called a Regional Parks System equity toolkit. The Council and the Regional Parks and Natural Resources unit staff - will work in close collaboration with regional park implementing agencies, partners, community based organizations, advocacy groups, and other stakeholder groups - to develop a Regional Parks System equity toolkit in 2015. Similar to the Council -wide equity lens, the Regional Parks System equity toolkit will be a short series of open -ended questions. Once approved by the Council, the Regional Parks System equity toolkit will be used by regional park implementing agencies and the Council in specific ways described in the following paragraphs. Using the Regional Parks System equity toolkit, the Metropolitan Parks and Open Space Commission and Council will be involved in the prioritization of the project list proposed for funding for the Capital Improvement Program and Parks and Trails Legacy Fund. As noted previously, for both the Capital Improvement Program and the Parks and Trails Legacy Fund, a list of projects must be provided to the state for legislative approval on a predetermined schedule. While regional park implementing agencies possess the greatest knowledge of the needs of their respective park and trail units, the Council has a role in assessing the ranked list of proposed projects, from both a regional and fiscal perspective, before it is submitted to the state. To evaluate the proposed list of projects submitted by the regional park implementing agencies, the Metropolitan Parks and Open Space Commission and the Council will seek to determine if proposed projects should be reprioritized based on the benefit a particular project may provide to all the region's residents and /or specifically target the needs and preference of specific under - served populations. In this vein, the Metropolitan Parks and Open Space Commission and the Council will evaluate the project lists using the Regional Parks System equity toolkit. Therefore, the regional park implementing agencies will be required to complete the Regional Parks System equity toolkit for each proposed project on their respective project list. It is important to note that the review of proposed projects will in no way alter an agency's share of funding received from either the Capital Improvement Program or the Parks and Trails Legacy Fund. Require regional park implementing agencies to complete a Regional Parks System equity toolkit in grant applications. The Regional Parks System equity toolkit, once adopted, will also be completed by regional park implementing agencies when they submit grant applications. The Regional Parks System equity toolkit will not be used for screening purposes or to determine eligibility of funding, but will provide the Council a mechanism to track and monitor progress toward strengthening equitable use of the Regional Parks System.