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Meeting Summary – Parks and Recreation Council <br />March 5th, 2025 <br /> <br />Bonnie B Davis Center, Hillsborough <br /> <br />Members Present: Natalie Ziemba (Chair), Louise Flinn, Trevor Robinson, Alissa Martucci, Allen <br />Parker, GiGi Rashdi, Chloe Reid (youth delegate), Navya Sharma (youth delegate) <br /> <br />Members Absent: Gregory Husketh, Ben King, Xilong Zhao, <br /> <br />Staff: David Stancil, Abby Mattingly, Kalani Allen. Guests Jessica Pearson and Mikayla <br />Hernandez, Gensler <br /> <br />Natalie Ziemba called the meeting to order at 6:32pm. <br /> <br />Report of the Chair: <br />a. Chair Comments – Chair Natalie Ziemba had no comments. <br />New Business: <br />a. Changes to the agenda – No changes were made. <br />b. County Trails Plan- Orange County has partnered with Gensler to develop a county <br />Trails Plan. Jessica Pearson and Mikayla Hernandez from Gensler presented their work <br />so far on the Trails Plan. They began by discussing their research on adopted plans and <br />community engagement research. Pearson outlined the six guiding principles that will <br />focus their methodology, as well as a potential schedule of activities. Pearson then <br />opened the floor to comments. Louise Flinn asked if the plan will focus on <br />unincorporated Orange County, and how municipality connectivity will be made. <br />Pearson will be seeking out municipal plans and ensure the plan will be cohesive with <br />municipal efforts. Alissa Martucci offered the safe routes to school plan as an <br />opportunity to increase connectivity and multimodal options along routes. Allen Parker <br />asked how the trails plan intend to communicate “up” to decision makers. Pearson <br />informed that budgetary and feasibility recommendations will be structured into the <br />timelines and will be presented to the Board of County Commissioners. Parker followed <br />up by asking what the plan can incentivize to encourage adoption. The BOCC will discuss <br />the final plan and will investigate further, likely asking staff to develop implementation <br />plans. Pearson then presented the goals reported from the survey and then continued <br />to discuss the projected timeline for the plan. The timeline is divided into five task areas <br />and outlined by month. This initiative is the first of its kind in attempting to map and <br />connect trails at a countywide level. Other plans are site specific or limited to the <br />municipalities. The Mountains to Sea Trail is the only real through trail in the County, <br />with many sections of the trail not being finalized. Robinson asked how the website will <br />be advertised and how information will be presented. Kalani Allen is developing the <br />website that will be housed on the Orange County DEAPR site. Information will be <br />updated regularly. Flinn discussed her participation with various vision workshops in the <br />past, and asked out the consultants intend to balance the level of commitment with