Lennox residents invited to help shape future Parks and Recreation Master Plan: Stockwell Engineers gathering public input to guide park improvements, trail expansion and future recreation priorities

Looking forward to future growth, Lennox residents are encouraged to use their voice to shape the blueprints of public spaces.

For the past 14 years, David Locke has been a Landscape Architect for Stockwell Engineers, Inc., leading the site design group, which includes civil engineers and landscape architects, and overseeing any park projects. Now, Locke is taking on the task of helping Lennox plan for the future by assisting in the preparation of the Parks and Recreation Master Plan. 

Like any Master Plan, Locke is hoping to make a blueprint of future growth for public spaces. 

“This Master Plan is going to act like a Comprehensive Plan in that you have a plan to help guide growth and direction to infrastructure, and this is the same thing just for Parks and Recreation. This helps guide decisions, growth, and this is not Stockwell’s plan, this is the community of Lennox’s plan, and it’s really important for us to engage the community as it’s an important part of our design process,” Locke said.

The Master Plan will look at all of the facilities in Lennox, not just specific parks. 

“The Master Plan will be a big picture approach to what we want our park system and our trail system to be like in the future, 5, 10, and 15 years down the road. The process that we go through includes a lot of public involvement because we want to make sure that we address the needs and wants of the community, and this plan is a true reflection of the community and the people who live and work there,” he said. 

Locke and his team have spent the last few days meeting with stakeholders and having meetings. 

“We had our first public meeting on Thursday, March 26 where 17 people attended, and we talked through what the Lennox park system does well, what their current system needs improvement in, and what elements should be added that you have seen on vacation, or visiting family and friends that you would like to incorporate into our parks. We talked about barriers and demographics or groups that aren’t currently being served by the park system and got a pulse for the current park system,” Locke said.

At the public meeting, Locke and his team learned of many issues that need to be addressed throughout the current park system. 

“People have also identified some of the facilities in Westerman Park to be improved, looking at the softball fields and drainage issues, as well as the basketball courts and tennis courts could be redone,” said Locke. “The bathrooms in general, people would like to see some replaced, but also adding to the existing ones in West Evergreen Park.”

Accessibility has also been brought up; residents want good sidewalks and access to each of the different elements within each of the parks, access to the playgrounds, and picnic shelters. People also thought the picnic shelters could be improved, especially the larger one in Westerman Park, and they’d like to see a park added to the North part of the community.

As the City Engineer for the City of Lennox, Stockwell Engineering is very familiar with the park system and the positive changes that have already been made. 

“From a positive standpoint, people have liked the maintenance of the facilities; they like the fact that there’s a good start to the trail system, the existing trail that is installed, people really like that. They appreciate the new playground equipment that has been installed and the pool has been a big success. Those are things that the public really likes and would like to continue,” he said.

Taking the information from the first public meeting, Stockwell is working with ETC Institute to put together a survey for residents to complete regarding the park system. 

“ETC Institute administers public surveys, and we are going to be working with them to prepare a public survey and questionnaire for the community asking Parks and Rec type questions in regards to facilities they utilize, do they feel like their needs are being met, and if there is anything that needs to be added,” Locke continued.

With surveys being mailed out within the next few weeks, Locke urges residents to complete the surveys. 

“The survey is a statistically valid survey which means they will mail it and email it to every household in the Lennox School District and we need to get between 150 and 200 responses back to track the location of the responses and get a response from those all around the school district to look at demographics, getting a 50/50 split of male and female, an equal split in age groups, all to make sure we get a good cross section of the community,” he said.

As a part of the analysis, Stockwell Engineering will look at the distribution of parks in the community as right now there’s only two, West Evergreen and Westerman Park. 

“There is also the t-ball field, but that is not designated as a city park; rather a city-owned facility that residents use, but it is not designated as a park, so we’re really hearing to add a park on the North side,” Locke said.

After the first public meeting, Locke and his team will begin the process of a site visit and a review with documentation of each park.

 “We like to have the stakeholder and public meetings before that, that way if there’s specific comments or items that we see reoccurring, we can make sure that we look at that when we go out on site,” he said. 

After the inventory has been taken, the team will wait for the results of the surveys. 

“Once we get the results of the community survey, we then use our experience of working with the park facilities, the community survey, and the public input that we have received to date, and we take all three of those elements and we start to develop high-level recommendations for the park system. Once we have those high-level recommendations, we will have another public meeting where we will present the results of the survey and results of what we have seen while asking the community to weigh in on the preliminary goals of recommendations that we have outlined to see if we have hit the mark or if we need to make some changes,” Locke said.

With hopes of creating something new, Locke encourages residents to really think about what would attract them to the park system in Lennox. 

“We are hoping to add more outdoor recreation within the community in terms of fishing or more nature-type areas. The two parks that are there now, I would say are more traditional parks with volleyball and sports activities, playgrounds, and picnic shelters, so they’re more built out. With the new park, people are hoping to see more of a nature park, a light-touch type of a park, but a place where fishing could be incorporated,” he said.

As the days get warmer, Locke encourages residents to visit their local parks. 

“From a season’s standpoint, right now is a great time to start thinking of ideas for the Master Plan. We are going to be getting the public processes started and visiting the parks this spring and summer. People are going to be out there engaging with the parks and their feedback is going to be more hands-on and more immediate in terms of what they are seeing when they are out there,” Locke said. 

Hoping for fast responses, Stockwell Engineering estimates the feedback portion to take around six to eight months to complete. 

“Their feedback is so important because it is what will help finalize the Master Plan document, which will be presented to the Park Board for their input and adoption, and eventually presented to the City Council. All of this takes about six to eight months, depending on how long it takes to get responses from the community survey, because we have to get a certain number returned back to us, and if that takes longer than expected, then it just takes longer for us to get results and that pushes things out a little bit,” he said.

Stockwell Engineering hopes to make the Master Plan a reflection of the community. 

“The park’s Master Plan is really a roadmap and a tool for the City of Lennox to use moving forward. What we’ll have in the plan is recommendations and steps that we recommend based on the public feedback, which will include a list of short, mid, and long term goals and high, mid, and low priorities based on the community feedback. We will also then put some preliminary, high-level cost ranges to some of the recommendations that way, as the park board and city start to prioritize, or look at investing in the park system they have some numbers to support whether it’s a $5,000 item or a $500,000 item, and they can start to budget that. If the community is going to go after grants, a lot of entities, whether state or private, they are going to award grants based on plans and right now the community does not have a parks Master Plan, there’s no guiding principal to how parks are improved or what the priorities are. This plan will outline those and use that to go after grants. Grants also like to see that you have gotten public input and some real impact from the community, not just something that you are putting in on a whim, but has been thought through and is intentional,” Locke said.