In 2021, SCJ Alliance was contracted by the City of Edgewood to engage the community and update their parks, recreation, open space, and trails (PROST) plan and ensure a GMA-compliant parks plan will comply with Washington State’s Recreation & Conservation Office (RCO) standards allowing the City to remain eligible for state outdoor recreation funding. SCJ built the plan upon the results of a very strategic multi-faceted outreach process, both digital and hybrid, that provided City residents and patrons a variety of opportunities to participate in the plan development. The process gathered the hopes, demands, and needs, in precise detail, of the community’s vision of how their parks & recreation system needs to improve.
The core takeaway was a desire to remain a “rural” community as much as possible by enhancing what they have while providing safe, equitable access to all their parks via a formalized, non-motorized trail system weaving in and around the different neighborhoods of the City. The emphasis on trail improvements and accessible connections created more potential funding opportunities the City hadn’t yet applied for or thought of for the park’s plan. In addition, many new desired trail routes were better candidates for the Safe Routes to Schools program, which better integrated the parks & recreation system with the City’s comprehensive and transportation improvement plans.