Miami Twp. looking for public input on parks plan

The move to form a park plan started when the Miami Twp. Board of Trustees adopted a comprehensive plan, dubbed The Plan, for the community in 2022, Carlson said.

Credit: JIM NOELKER

Credit: JIM NOELKER

“One of the key recommendations of that plan was to develop a parks plan that coordinates all of our public open space, sidewalks and bike paths into a single document with the hope of engaging residents to provide their vision of what the park system should be,” he said. “We had overwhelming support, as part of surveys from the plan, from residents of the township that they wanted to see more planning focused on our parks and our trails.”

Miami Twp. is home to 12 parks totaling almost 712 acres, 10 of them maintained by the township and two by Five Rivers Metroparks. The initial discovery phase of the plan started earlier this year with a community planning workshop in April, Carlson said. A second one is planned for this fall.

“We’re hoping to get that scheduled and announced very soon, with the ultimate goal of having a draft plan ready for public review and hopefully presented to the Board of Trustees for adoption by the end of the year, if not very early next year,” he said. “The key priority here, as with all of our planning efforts, is really to try to engage stakeholders of the township, whether that’s residents, businesses or just anybody who visits and enjoys our community.”

Credit: JIM NOELKER

Credit: JIM NOELKER

That means asking the public what they want in township parks, how they believe the township can improve access to them and how the township can better prioritize and fund park maintenance needs and improvements, Carlson said.

“The goal is to answer all of these questions that will lead to a parks and trails plan that sets a coordinated policy for the township to help township staff and the board of trustees focus to make our parks the best they can be,” he said. “The key is ... to make sure that residents feel engaged and have ownership over their park system, make sure it’s serving them the best that it can.”