By JOSH COTTON

jcotton@timesobserver.com

A draft of the City of Warren’s parks plan details an ambitious slate of projects for the city’s park resources.

The plan is part of a joint effort with county government to develop new comprehensive plans — of which the park plan is a part — for both entities.

While city staff told the Parks & Recreation Commission that a public draft of the plan would be available in a couple weeks, a member of the Parks & Recreation Commission posted the document to his website.

Kirk Johnson — in a defense of a proposal to explore development options at Washington Park — then included the links to the plan in a letter to the editor published in the Times Observer.

“If this outrageous plan succeeds, Washington Park as the quiet, remote natural area that we have always known it to be is over forever,” Johnson wrote. “It is important that Washington Park remain completely free from all developments, in perpetuity. That must be our firm position, or we will with time risk losing the park and it’s qualities that we cherish.”

The plan, however, touches on every city park, some metrics aimed at determining how the community is served by the parks in the city as well as the results of a public survey about park usage.

The public survey, per the draft, indicates that Betts Park was the most frequently visited.

On the other end of that scale? Clemons, Mulberry, Morck and Wetmore.

A total of 63 percent of respondents supported keeping Breeze Point Landing — subject of a hotel project expected to be paused by city council next week — as a park.

The firm, Mackin Engineering, that completed the plan calculated metrics aimed at determining whether the city’s parks offerings meet the community’s needs. The parks are divided into three categories — community parks (Washington and Betts), neighborhood parks (Beaty, Mulberry, Crescent and Point for example) and mini-parks, such as Clemons, Soldiers & Sailors and Gen. Joseph Warren.

Using National Recreation and Park Association standards which includes factors such as population and park acreage, a deficiency in the mini-parks was found but surplus space for the other two categories.

Some of the specific recommendations are city-wide — developing a formal trail network, improve downtown river access — while each park also has specific recommendations.

At Betts, the key recommendation is an “all-weather building” to serve as an off-season home for the downtown Farmer’s Market. The draft notes that a state Redevelopment Capital Assistance Program application has been submitted for that project.

Other notable projects proposed by the engineering firm — in addition to many infrastructure repairs — are the trail system at Washington Park, utilizing Morck Park as a trailhead for the bike trail, addressing the stormwater management problems at Mulberry and expanded trails and skate park amenities at Beaty.

The Parks & Recreation Commission indicated at its last meeting an intent to spend its next meeting — April 6 — discussing the plan.