Parks, Recreation and Open Space (PROS) Plan

The Parks, Recreation and Open Space (PROS) Plan is a six-year guide and strategic plan for managing and enhancing park and recreation services. It provides a vision for Kirkland’s park and recreation system and establishes a path forward for providing high quality, community-driven parks, trails, open spaces and recreational opportunities. The PROS Plan creates a framework that will allow the City to respond to new opportunities as they arise, and to ensure that parks, facilities and recreation programs meet the needs of Kirkland’s residents, employees and visitors now and into the future.

The City of Kirkland updated the PROS Plan in 2021-2022. The PROS Plan was fully updated to reflect substantial growth and changes in the community and to the park system. Three additional scopes of work were conducted and integrated into the PROS Plan:

• Community needs assessment
• ADA evaluation and transition plan
• Athletic field use and demand analysis study

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) evaluation was performed by Bureau Veritas as part of the PROS Plan update using methods and procedures consistent with good commercial and customary practice for assessing compliance with the Title II provisions of the ADA and applicable state and local requirements. The ADA Transition Plan serves as a pragmatic application tool that identifies existing and future accessibility needs, document accessibility facility standards, and provide design criteria for future facilities development. Accessibility assessments were conducted at 52 parks and facilities. This report includes summary tables of identified barriers with associated costs.

City of Kirkland Parks and Community Services ADA Title II Transition Plan(PDF, 2MB)

A survey was completed by several athletic field stakeholder groups in August 2021 and the resulting data will be used to provide recommendations regarding the use of fields, reconfiguration of current fields, and the construction of new fields to meet demand. Improvements to the field allocation process will also be addressed to improve equity and meet the unmet needs of users that are not currently being served. Preliminary findings were presented at the City Council Study Session on October 5, 2021.

Kirkland Athletic Fields Analysis City Council Briefing(PDF, 2MB)

Preliminary recommendations and survey results were presented to survey participants and athletic field stakeholder groups on January 19, 2022.

Kirkland Athletic Fields Analysis 2nd Presentation 1-19-22(PDF, 3MB)

Supplemental Info from Kirkland Athletic Fields Analysis 2nd Presentation(PDF, 9MB)

The purpose of the community needs assessment survey was to gather community feedback on Kirkland parks, recreation facilities, amenities, future planning, communication and more. In September 2021, GreenPlay LLC in conjunction with RRC Associates mailed 4,864 postcards and 4,822 statistically valid surveys to Kirkland community members to get the needs and opinions of both non-users and users of parks, recreation facilities, and programs in the community. A total of 656 invitation surveys were completed with a /- 3.8% Margin of Error.

A follow-up "open link" survey where the rest of the community was encouraged to respond was made available to the entire community in October 2021. A total of 2,345 open link surveys were completed by community members. This survey research effort and subsequent analysis were designed to assist in the development of a PROS Plan that reflects the community's needs and desires.

PROS Plan Community Needs Assessment Report(PDF, 8MB)

Open-Ended Comments from Community Needs Assessment(PDF, 1MB)

On Wednesday, September 29, 2021, community members were invited to attend a virtual community conversation meeting about off-leash areas for dogs.

• Watch a recording of the event
• See the responses to poll questions(PDF, 200KB) asked during the event
• View the 2018-2019 Outreach Findings Report on the Off-Leash Areas Planning webpage
• Visit an off-leash area for dogs in Kirkland