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1—1 Orange County Comprehensive Parks and Recreation Master Plan CHAPTER 1 - Summary of the Plan 1 Summary of the Plan In July 1988, the Orange County Board of Commissioners adopted the County’s first master plan for the provision of parks and recreatfon services. This document, the “Master Recreatfon and Parks Plan” included on its opening page the following introductfon: “The growing population of America has more leisure time than ever before, a factor encouraging greater participation in recreational activities…As a consequence, federal, state and local governments are challenged with providing adequate recreational activities for an expanding population. This challenge is heightened by the fact that urbanization is reducing existing open space. Increased demand often results in the overuse of existing facilities which in turn leads to mis-use or deterioration.” What was true in 1988 appears true or even exacerbated in 2014. Greater demand for a wide range of recreatfonal opportunitfes is stfll evident. The past 25 years have seen further dramatfc changes in Orange County, where almost 50,000 additfonal residents have come to reside since 1988. Urban and suburban development has changed the landscape of much of the natfon, the state and our county. This same quarter-century has also been a period of dramatfc change in the degree of park facilitfes and recreatfon programs in the county – especially in the past 15 years. Since 1998, Orange County has funded, constructed and opened six new parks, and witnessed substantfal increases in recreatfon and athletfc program partfcipatfon. The facilitfes and programs available in 2014 offer opportunitfes beyond those envisioned in 1988, into program areas and types of facilitfes only opaquely seen at that tfme. Likewise, the linkages between public parks, recreatfon programs and public health has become an issue of natfonal significance, and interest in healthier lifestyles (whether through athletfc events on playing fields or opportunitfes to commune with nature on an interpretfve trail) is of heightened awareness. The Parks and Recreation Master Plan 2030 contained herein is, in essence, an attempt to:  examine the lessons and experiences of the past,  identffy current issues and challenges, and  project community needs and desires into a vision for the future – a future that ensures a legacy of parks and public open spaces for current and future generatfons. To provide for these places, the County embarked on an innovatfve and proactfve Lands Legacy Program which works in part to acquire future park sites, many of which were identffied back in the 1988 plan. Background and Inventory – Why a New Plan The 1988 Master Recreatfon and Parks Plan was Orange County’s first vision for a future of park facilitfes and recreatfonal opportunitfes, and it has served the County well. The fact that so many of its organizing concepts, goals and identffied facility needs contfnue to be the basis of actfvity and policy is testament to its service. However, there can be no questfon that many things have changed since 1988. New residentfal subdivi- sions, schools, populatfon growth, interstate highways, and changes in community infrastructure are just a few of the many changed conditfons from the 1988 plan. In order to accurately represent the vision for the future, plans must be updated, and goals and objectfves revisited and adjusted. This plan looks to both the ideas and goals of the old plan, and the espoused community needs and interests of the present and future. While Orange County adopted a system master plan in 1988, in reality, very little actfvity toward achiev- ing the vision of that plan occurred in the first decade after its adoptfon. However, beginning with new planning efforts and a voter-approved bond referendum in 1997, the next 15 years would see 15