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FoNP Launches Community Call to Submit Feedback on DPR's Ready2Play Master Plan

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Overview

Ready2Play, the DC Department of Parks and Recreation’s new 20-year master plan for parks and recreation is now open for public comments through January 31, 2023. We highly encourage everyone to check out the Master Plan. 

As a ‘Friends of’ Park Partner, the Friends of Noyes Park Board has spent extensive time reviewing the Master Plan. In our opinion, Ready2Play is very thoughtfully drafted. We welcome it and DPR’s public comment period as an opportunity to rectify some of the maintenance, health, and safety issues-in parks generally and Noyes Park specifically-that current operations and maintenance processes have failed to address. 

FoNP has submitted a letter outlining our areas of support as well as aspects of the plan our organization believes are wholly insufficient. You can read our full public statement here. 

Areas of Support for the Ready2Play Master Plan

  • FoNP applauds DC DPR for facilitating an engagement process to create a Master Plan for the development and major renovation of its play spaces.

  • FoNP strongly supports the creation of the Equity Framework to guide decision-making regarding DPR’s future capital investments, operations, programming, and maintenance

  • FoNP agrees with the key priorities guiding the approach to developing the substantive details of the master plan, including prioritizing resilience and sustainability, promoting access, connectivity, and diversity of recreational experiences, ensuring accessibility and inclusion, decreasing health inequities and increasing health outcomes, integrating technology, innovation, and education into play and recreation spaces, celebrating identity and culture, ensuring equitable enhancement and maintenance activities, and expanding collaboration with partners.

  • FoNP acknowledges FY2031 as DPR’s projected timeframe for a capital investment in a new playground at Noyes Park, designed and constructed through a facilitated community engagement and planning process. With regard to an entirely new playground, FoNP believes that the projected time frame is reasonable as the playground structures themselves are sound, interactive, of sufficient variety, and well utilized by children of all ages.

Areas of Concern with the Ready2play Master plan

  • Without a system-wide overhaul to the District’s operations and maintenance structures, processes, and mechanisms for accountability, operations and maintenance of parks and playgrounds will fail to be transparent, efficient, engaged, or credible.

  • DC Department of General Services competing priorities and lack of accountability leads to inadequate maintenance of park facilities.

  • There is no resolution path for to rectify park maintenance issues outside the scope of annual maintenance budgets

  • Park Partners alone cannot solve structural operating failings of DC agencies.

Key Recommendations for the Ready2Play Master Plan

The Friends of Noyes Park has identified Key Recommendations within the Master Plan where FoNP would be an ideal DPR Park Partner to pilot their implementation and rollout. Specifically, the Friends of Noyes Park / Noyes Park:

  • Should be selected as a site to proactively audit and engage communities around ongoing maintenance concerns, (Master Plan Recommendation GR.16)

  • Could work productively with the DC Department of General Services to develop an updated process for estimating annual maintenance costs, (Master Plan Recommendation GR.17)

  • Is an ideal candidate to pilot the use of park-specific maintenance and operating budgets, (Master Plan Recommendation GR.18), and

  • Could provide insightful and actionable feedback in exploring the expansion of DPR’s Level 1 (Ready Team) to tackle routine and emergency maintenance tasks not currently under DGS’s oversight (Master Plan Recommendation GR.19).

Submit Your Support for FoNP’s Ready2Play Master Plan Recommendations

If you would like to submit a public comment signing on in support of FoNP’s statement and recommendations, you can do so by following these steps: 

  1. Check out Ready2Play, DPR’s 20-Year Parks and Recreation Master Plan.

  2. Read FoNP’s full public statement on Ready2Play.

  3. Complete DPR’s Public Comment Survey by end of the day on Tuesday, January 31st.

  4. If you’re signing on with support for FoNP’s public statement, we recommend that you include the following response in Question 7 of DPR’s public comment survey:

    I am a supporter and patron of Noyes Park, located at 1000 Franklin Street NE in Ward 5. I have reviewed the statement submitted by the Friends of Noyes Park on the Ready2Play Master Plan, and express my support of FoNP’s recommendations in this letter: https://www.friendsofnoyespark.org/news/2023/1/21/ready2play-master-plan-fonp-comment 

    Specifically, I agree that the Friends of Noyes Park / Noyes Park 1) should be selected as a site to proactively audit and engage communities around ongoing maintenance concerns, 2) could work productively with the DC Department of General Services to develop an updated process for estimating annual maintenance costs, 3) is an ideal candidate to pilot the use of park-specific maintenance and operating budgets, and 4) could provide insightful and actionable feedback in exploring the expansion of DPR’s Level 1 (Ready Team) to tackle routine and emergency maintenance tasks not currently under DGS’s oversight.