The East Bay Regional Park District (Park District) is embarking on a transformative journey to create our next District Plan. The District Plan is a strategic roadmap with key priorities to guide us into the next century of leadership and excellence. Input will be gathered from staff and the public before the forward-looking, actionable District Plan is approved by the Park District Board of Directors.

The first round of public engagement for the District Plan took place in Spring 2025. Over 5,794 survey responses were received, and have helped shape the key questions for this next round of public engagement.

For this second round of public engagement, we are asking for public input on:

1) Draft Goals for the District Plan

2) Priorities related to the functions and activities of the Park District

3) Budgeting and Tradeoffs.

Your input will guide the development of the District Plan and the future of the Park District.

Based on analysis, community input, and staff input, the District Plan team has identified themes and major goals for the District Plan.

Themes

Input received to date revealed key themes that are common across many different ideas, concerns, and hopes for the future of the District. Themes will be reflected throughout the District Plan, and across all goals. The themes are:

• Equity
• Resiliency
• Collaboration
• Fiscal Sustainability

Goals

The draft major goals are:

Since the 1970s, the Park District has protected thousands of acres of open space and opened an average of seven parks each decade. Providing park staff, educational and recreational programming, and fire and police services means great parks every day for the public.

After 50 or more years, some park facilities need renovation or replacement. Public facilities like visitor centers and swim facilities as well as staff facilities for maintenance and operations need major updates to be safe, functional, and usable. These projects include beloved community assets, critical staff facilities, and basic infrastructure.

There is currently no dedicated fund for these projects. Some of them are very expensive, and the Park District faces increased costs due to the growing risk of wildfire, extreme heat, sea level rise, flooding, drought, and increased pest and disease due to climate change.

Given the Park District’s growth in recent decades and the need to catch up on maintenance and expand operations, the Park District will need to consider priorities for how it spends its resources.

The Park District engages in many different activities in support of its dual mission to 1) protect natural and cultural resources and 2) provide recreation.We would like your input on how these different activities should be prioritized. While these activities will continue, we are interested in understanding which ones the community sees as most important. This feedback will inform the District Plan, which will help guide future decisions about resources and funding in the future.

Like most government agencies, every year the Park District goes through a budgeting process to decide which projects will be funded. Capital projects, such as building new facilities and fixing major infrastructure, are often funded over several years. Because there are more projects each year than the Park District can afford to build, we consider how well each project supports our long-term goals, how much it will cost, and how much it will take to maintain over time to make sure we’re building toward the future we want to see.

Another component of budgeting is taking care of everything that is already built and providing excellent experiences throughout the parks – the operations and maintenance budget. This includes both regular and daily maintenance, as well as staff that maintains parks, ensures public safety, and interfaces with visitors. While capital costs are one-time costs, operations and maintenance costs are ongoing/annual.

You are invited to give it a try!

Think about the next 10 years for the Park District and our East Bay communities and select the types of projects you think should be funded. For this exercise, you have $2,500 to spend on different types of projects. Costs shown are scaled to reflect real-life cost, on average.

Some considerations as you make your choices:

• Each project cost represents two components:
  • 1) Capital (construction) cost, and
  • 2) Cost of Operations and Maintenance for ten years
• Regular maintenance of infrastructure is largely covered by the Park District’s current annual operating budget and adds relatively little to the operations and maintenance costs.
• You can select more than one project for each spending type.
• Remember your goals and priorities from previous questions.