Agenda - Council Work Session - 03/16/2020 - Special

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181 Public Engagement Since the early 1990s, Ramsey has engaged residents purposely and consciously in their neighborhood park planning with good success. This approach creates ownership in their public spaces. More recently, the City of Ramsey has undertaken a variety of engagement efforts, citywide that directly and indirectly affect decision making about the park system. The responses to all those efforts have highlighted the importance of parks, recreation, trails, and open space on the quality of life in Ramsey. Access to parks and trails, coupled with high -quality open space —even if only visually, evokes a sense of rural character and is a significant reason that people choose to live and invest in the community and thus, parks, trails greenways should remain a priority for on -going municipal investment. As part of the specific engagement effort for this Comprehensive Plan Update, the City of Ramsey has held several meetings and workshops, along with other engagement tools. Specifically, we have heard Ramsey should: • Prioritize preservation along Trott Brook. • Begin addressing reconstruction of aging/existing parks. • Develop a plan for filling in trail gaps in the community —especially in the northern tier of the community, and along arterial roadways. • Find a balance in investment between larger Community Parks and Neighborhood Parks. o A few of our newer subdivisions are asking for parks to be included within their new neighborhood. o Many existing neighborhoods desire updating of play structures —some less than 15 years old, some exceedingly beyond their useful life. • Preserve open space along the Mississippi River as a priority. • Focus new park efforts on o Future Community Park #6 (north central portions of the city) o The COR (at the top of the list is a splash pad/water recreation) o Lake Itasca Park (natural resource -based development, lake access and the proposed Lake Itasca Greenway—connecting The COR) There were related comments with more of a focus on Ramsey's ecological resources, such as "Protect Mississippi River and Rum River from shoreline erosion," and those comments are included in Ramsey's Natural Resources Plan. Existing Parks System Regional Parks There are two (2) Regional Parks and two (2) Regional Trails in Ramsey. • Central Anoka County Regional Trail • Mississippi River Regional Trail • Mississippi West Regional Park • Rum River Central Regional Park Figure 44: Regional Parks and trails city of RAMSEY Comprehensive Plan 2040