First ever master plan for Modesto’s parks seeks direction from residents
On a cold, wet and windy Wednesday evening, community members gathered in Modesto Centre Plaza’s Arbor Theatre to express their vision for the future of Modesto city parks.
Hilary Moak, Central Valley program director for the Tuolumne River Trust, said she was enthusiastic for the update because this will be the city’s first parks master plan. “We’re really happy that this is coming to fruition and really excited for the future of the parks and to see the community buy in.”
The master plan is being developed in partnership with the community, public officials, park staff and BerryDunn, a consulting firm.
Jeremy Rogers, Modesto’s parks director, said when he started at the city about a year ago, he had a vision for the parks and part of it was the creation of a master plan.
“I want to take our department to the next level,” he said. “And in order to do that, we need a plan – we need a road map.”
Art Thatcher, a parks and recreation consultant at BerryDunn, gave an interactive presentation titled “Reimagining the Future” that encouraged members to focus on what they want, and don’t want, in the new vision of Modesto parks.
“We believe that engagement is really the largest and the biggest cornerstone to any planning process,” he said. “We really don’t know what you as a community want.”
City Council members Chris Ricci from District 3 and Jeremiah Williams from District 5 were in attendance, taking note of participants’ priorities.
“One thing that Modesto is really good at is parks,” Ricci said. “We’ve got 76 parks. We’ve got big parks, we’ve got small parks, and we need our parks to serve every segment of the community.”
What residents said they want to see
Some attendees said they hope the permitting process for events will become less cumbersome, and they want to see more events including specialty events, festivals and food trucks.
Alfredo Guerra lives near Sherwood Park, which he visits often. He expressed a lot of optimism for the future of the parks and hopes to see improvements.
“When you go to the bigger cities, you see a lot of carnivals, a lot of different recreational things happening,” he said. “It would be great to see something like that in our city – I feel like we don’t have that.”
A contingent of swimmers advocated for a pool, preferably Olympic sized, where it could train new swimmers and use it as a facility for veteran swimmers.
Some residents called for native plants and trees that can withstand storms without falling.
Martin Montez, youth parks committee member and junior at Gregori High, said one thing the committee is focusing on is an educational signage project for the parks.
“It’s going to have a lot of educational features, mainly about the history and biodiversity [of the parks], educating people on what the park already has to offer,” he said.
What residents want to see change
One theme that came up over and over as a focus for improvement was safety and lack of lighting. Many requested more police enforcement and more bathrooms — and bathrooms in better condition.
Many responses raised issues about bothersome e-bikers. Kevin McClarty, a resident of District 1, called for a separate designated walking path.
“Walkers don’t have anywhere to walk because people ride on the walking trails and they’re very rude to walkers and say ‘Get out of the way’ and all of that,” he said.
Another participant concurred. “I think we have a lot of problems with e-bikes, and not just casual e-bikers, but the ones that are down there literally like Mad Max,” she said. “They don’t even tell you they’re on the left.”
Funding and outreach
Guerra, the resident near Sherwood Park, raised a concern about the locations of the three meetings about the master plan: Monday at the Stanislaus County Veteran’s Services Office, Wednesday at Modesto Centre Plaza and Thursday at Saint Paul’s Episcopal Church. None, he noted, were held in in south or west Modesto, which hindered people from those communities from participating.
“I’m going to guess that where it was taking place, the representation of those groups and those communities weren’t there, weren’t here today, and won’t be there tomorrow,” he said Wednesday evening.
BerryDunn consultant Thatcher added that it plans to have pop-ups at local events and stakeholder interviews to gain more feedback on what residents want to see in Modesto city parks.
“It would be really great to have them hold more pop-up events in [the] airport [neighborhood], west Modesto and south Modesto, specifically,” Tuolumne River Trust representative Moak said.
Another issue is making sure the city can secure the funds necessary to see the project to realization.
“So many times we have really great ideas, but due to budgets, due to inflation, due to everything, there’s no funding streams to see it happen, “ Moak said. “So just really honing in on ways that the department can gain funding to continue these projects.”
Rudraansh Korlakunta, a park youth committee member and student at Gregori High, said he came to gain insight into the decision-making process.
“Today seemed more like a general thing, not many decisions were made, just some sort of context for the [BerryDunn] company,” he said. “It was a good general meeting for some context.”
The master plan is in its fifth stage, the sixth of which will be a needs assessment, checking on the current status of the parks and what is needed.
The next meeting will be held Thursday from 6 to 7:30pm at Saint Paul’s Episcopal Church, 1528 Oakdale Road. The public also can provide input by survey on the project through the Modesto Parks and Recreation Master Plan Engagement Site.
This story was originally published March 13, 2025 at 1:49 PM.
