Parks & Recreation Master Plan Update

I am an avid tennis player and I noted that tennis is a low priority and pickleball is a high moderate one. I hope that does not mean that you change the existing tennis courts into more pickleball courts. Right now at Flaherty we have a hard enough time in finding courts to play since the pickleballers take over 2 of the tennis courts on most nights and use the upper ones. The pickleball courts that are on the tennis courts seem to be used primarily by younger people who don't seem to realize that their play is interrupting others enjoyment of the facility. Plus they play other sports on the courts like tossing footballs.

It appears that most of the young people are unaccompanied by adults and most of the tennis players are older and are afraid to interact with the younger kids in case things turn ugly. It would be ideal if you could have both pickleball and tennis courts that are exclusive to each sport and not have to share.

Page 1-7 - It is not clear from the reference in the text and the legend of Figure 1 what that figure is showing. What is a park search area?
Page 2-15 - Figure 5 legend includes town-owned land, but there is none shown on the map.
Page 2-27 - The community plan was adopted in 2022, so that's usually the year that would be referenced, even though it was updated in 2023.
Page 5-12 - Under Key Takeaways heading, first bullet does not make sense to me. It talks about understanding why Joiner Park is so popular to guide future programming decisions, and then in the same sentence says potentially replicating successful features in other locations. I think Joiner Park is special because it offers a unique experience, and we should not be looking to replicate features from other locations.
Page 5-12 - How many people provided responses to the surveys?
Page 5-22 - The survey responses provide some insight into why Joiner Park is popular (and why adding features from other parks, like outdoor pickleball courts or ball fields, might be a bad idea). This is addressed directly in the survey #2 responses on page 5-26.
Page 6.1-11 - What is the Flaherty Community Center in JPCC?
Page 6.3-6 - Is there a decimal point missing in Wake Forest's staffing FTEs number? Otherwise Wake Forest is almost 30 times the upper quartile.
Page 6.3-13 - Additional information on how the investments were determined would be helpful. Over what time period? What type of investment? The Flaherty Park number looks very low.
Page 6.3-15 - What was the methodology for creating the walkshed map? The map appears to be inaccurate in some areas. For example, near Joyner Park, anyone in the Staffordshire neighborhood can safely walk to the Joyner Park trails connection at Wahlbrink Dr using sidewalks and very low traffic volume neighborhood streets in 20 minutes or less, yet that entire neighborhood shows up as gray on the map. Even a resident on Wahlbrink Dr who could walk to the park trail in less than a minute is in a gray area. Conversely, areas on the west side of Capital Blvd are shown as within a 10-20 minute walkshed, but they do not have any pedestrian pathway across Capital Blvd to Joyner Park. There are no pedestrian facilities on Purnell Rd or Harris Rd in that area, no crosswalks across Capital Blvd, etc. In my opinion, this mapping is crucial to LOS analysis and determining where to invest to improve access to parks, so it's troubling that it's so far off showing where a person can realistically walk to a park.
Page 7-5 - Formatting is off.
Page 7-14 - How did the park search area map emerge out of the plan's analysis? This is a frustrating part about the draft plan. There are several maps presented, but it's not clear how they should be synthesized to accomplish the recommendations. This seems like it should be a pillar of the master plan.
Chapter 7 - It would be helpful if there was a more clear implementation framework that showed priority among the action items and who is responsible for implementation. As it is, many of the action items are stated very generally there is not a clear sense of what the timelines and dependencies are. It seems like there are steps left undone in this plan as far as identifying how the system could be expanded physically to address the identified needs. At what point is it anticipated that someone would look at all the analysis in the plan next to the potential sites in the Town and connect the dots? Shouldn't the master plan do that?

Please keep the "Forest" in Wake Forest! This means balanced development where the majority of our neighbors have shaded and walkable access to a neighborhood park or greenway when they step outside their door.

In practice, this means the town's park department needs to acquire small plots of land throughout the town and create more medium sized neighborhood parks, build more recreation courts and fitness spaces and playgrounds (shaded please and with a few baby swings!), address sidewalk gaps, and develop more connected greenways (especially to historic downtown). I support development and growth, but it needs to be balanced and we need to require developers to a) do a better job not cutting down so many trees, especially along roadways, and b) contribute to the cost of developing neighborhood parks and connecting neighborhoods to greenway systems.

Lastly, thank you for the fitness court at Flaherty. I've already made a new friend doing my workouts there and it's a fantastic setup! I'd love to see more of the town have access to spaces like this so that being fit doesn't have to cost someone an expensive boutique membership!

More pickleball courts please.
Extend Flaherty court footprint and make it 8 courts.

I agree with most of the already posted comments. As a resident of southwestern Wake Forest, we have zero nearby parks. As the map shows, there are town owned land in those areas. Please consider adding parks that include more tennis courts in that area. Additionally, I would be interested in more adult organized sports leagues.

Overall, the Wake Forest Parks and Community Centers are great and the parks are well cared for. We do have a terrible need for additional outdoor Pickleball courts. The 4 dedicated courts we have at Flaherty were fine when it was mostly older retirees playing, but now that group is far in the minority. There are also 2 tennis courts that are marked for Pickleball as well, but they have to be free and you have to have access to a portable net. On May 30th (Thursday), I counted and there were 42 people playing or waiting their turn to play Pickleball on the 4 dedicated courts, with 20 more playing (or waiting to play) down on the one tennis court that was available. There was another handful of young teens walking up to play as I was leaving around 6:30. Even with everyone playing doubles, there can only be 16 people on the dedicated Pickleball courts at any one time. With an average game lasting 15-25 minutes, a player can end up waiting for 25-30 minutes to play their next game. For the record, I have never seen anyone waiting their turn at the tennis courts. I understand that building new Pickleball courts is only considered a medium priority, but if the two multi-use courts could be converted into dedicated Pickleball courts, it would help tremendously. I think that would still leave 10-12 dedicated tennis courts at Flaherty.

Wake Forest needs a Greenway running along the south side of Jones Dairy Farm road from 98 to Averette road and down E Young st to S Main st. There a lot of teenagers, young children walking along side the road as well as adults. The Greenway would make it safe!! I lost a sister to a car hitting her while riding her bike on the edge of a road.

Stop all the crowded building of residential developments! Procure and set aside vacant lands for small parks with shade trees in different areas throughout the town which can be a safe, short walk by sidewalks and greenways. Everyone within the town's jurisdiction should be able to leave the car at home and go for a safe walk under shade trees and have a bench to seat down every once in a while, and perhaps some swings and a slide or jungle gym for children. Are all public parks north of 98? The town has been negligent in their responsibilities for management of the ETJ, particularly south of 98.

We do not need developers, across the street from Joyner Park, taking away the beauty, integrity and wildlife. There are enough vacancies around that would warrant that is not needed. Save the trees!

I think it is a shame that rich developers and attorneys can just buy up such beautiful wooded area and clear cut them just got room for $$$$$$$

With paschal golf club at risk of going away, and wake forest cc closed many years ago, I’d like to see a municipal golf course built

From the overwhelming turnout our rapidly developing town has to outdoor park hosted events, such as Six Sundays in Spring, Boo Bash, and many others, it is clear that the town needs more open space for active and passive recreational events. In addition, the town needs to carefully consider what it allows to be developed in the areas surrounding Joyner Park. The town should work with the land owner and conservation groups to acquire and maintain the Harris Rd forested parcel across from Joyner as a nature preserve. Doing so would enhance the beauty and accessibility of the park while providing much needed passive open space.

We need better road infrastructure and road repair on several side and backroads like the inlet that leads from Capital Blvd. to the Firestone near Wal-Mart. Additionally, I find the rate of approval for new appartments and housing to be too high and too fast! What was once lush forest around the Cavness Farms and Cumarron areas is now turning into a suburban sprawl with what seems to be no regard for animal habitats or natural barriers between residential and highway locations. I feel like we're losing the "Forest" in Wake Forest.

The huge influx of new pickleball players in our area have made it an even greater need for more pickleball courts in Wake Forest. We have an opportunity to get a whole generation of people involved in a healthy, absolutely fun way to exercise and meet folks from any age and walks of life.

We are in desperate need of more tennis courts and better road infrastructure to accommodate the town’s rapid
Growth. Town keeps approving new apartment, housing and commercial structures without any regard for our current traffic problem. We can’t get out of our neighborhoods, can’t make left turn in or out of commercial centers. If the town needed to evacuate for any reason it would result in gridlock worst than what we are currently experience. It is ludicrous.