Saturday, January 21, 2006

Strategic plan for parks is on the way

Strategic Planning Process

The board and staff of NVRPA have been engaged in a strategic planning process that has been going on for a number of months. Development of the new mission statement is perhaps the most important foundational step in this plan, since all of our programs and plans should be consistent with our mission. Other actions like adding transparency to our budget documents, working on land acquisitions, and setting a priority on energy conservation are all elements of an evolving plan for the future.

Below is a brief description of the key planning elements of this planning process:

  • Mission Statement. This document adopted by the board in October is the foundational document that the rest of the plan should relate to.
  • Vision for Park Programs. This is a one-day planning session with the management team (Assistant Park Manager and up). The purpose of this session is to develop programmatic and strategic ideas that can be used in the development of the final plan.
  • Park Needs Assessment. Over the last three years Arlington, Alexandria and Fairfax County have all contracted park needs surveys to assess the public’s interest/need for various types of park features and programs. NVRPA is contracting a comparable survey of Loudoun, Falls Church and Fairfax City. This data will be analyzed and compared to the existing data from the other jurisdictions to create a park needs assessment for our whole region. Collectively our end product will have the backing of over 3,500 interviews throughout our region. This data will give NVRPA wonderful planning tool to help guild our capital and programmatic planning.
  • Facilitated Strategic Planning Process. This will be the all important step, were the board works with a strategic planning facilitator to take the building blocks of the Mission Statement, Vision for Park Programs and Park Needs Assessment, and creates a well crafted plan for the next 3-5 years.
  • Public Hearing/Comment. This step will give us direct input on how members of the public feel about the proposed plan.
  • Plan Adoption. After the board has considered any public comments, the board should formally adopt the plan.


1 comment:

Anonymous said...

The new Cross Country Trail is a great accomplishment. I believe another great accomplishment would be connecting Bull Run trail with the vast network of trails in the county. The way to do this, in my opinion, is to find a way to provide a pedestrian crossing from the trail at Rocky Run Stream Valley Park near Cabell's Mill over route 28 and then provide a safe pedestrian crossing to the sidewalks on the other side of route 28 which can then lead to the Bull run trails. If a pedestrian crossing over Route 28 were accomplished there, then trail users could go from the W & OD down the Fairfax county Parkway trails to Rock Run Stream Valley Park to Bull run park and a second impressive Fairfax County CCT would be realized.