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ALBEMARLE — At the Albemarle City Council meeting on Monday night, councilmembers were presented with an overview of the Albemarle Parks and Recreation Department’s Comprehensive Plan.

The ten-year recommended action plan covers each of the city’s parks and programs, setting the stage for the next decade of planning for the department that maintains 300 acres of land shared between the Albemarle Soccer Complex, City Lake Park, Hearne Park, Don Montgomery Park, Chuck Morehead Park and Rock Creek Park.

Over the last eight months, engineering and consulting firm McGill Associates has worked with the parks and rec department, Albemarle City Council, Parks and Recreation Advisory Board and community members on the details of the 200-page plan.

Nate Halubka, project consultant at McGill Associates, provided councilmembers with a synopsis of the plan and focused on strategies that could enhance Albemarle’s parks and rec facilities.

“This is a real glimpse for you to understand what’s going on and what the interests are of your public,” Halubka said.

“You have some larger capital needs, but I think your low-hanging fruit right now if you want to move towards attracting more residents is if you can go through and start to do beautification in your park system,” he added. “Update the landscaping and the signage — and do some brand standards and brand management — so that whenever people are coming in and using your park system and they’re not familiar with it, they get a little bit of an awe factor whenever they come in and step into one of your parks.”

Using a graph of cell phone data to chart activity, the project consultant highlighted the city’s high level of park usage compared to a state average and also brought up the beneficial economic impact of parks on local businesses.

His assessment included a caveat that the city’s park system is robust but strained, with areas needing upgrades in accessibility, lighting, and staffing to support increased demand and tourism potential.

“Right now, if they step in, depending on what park they go to, they either get a wow factor or they think ‘these parks get used a lot,’” Halubka noted. “Update the look of some of your parks and update that signage so that they know how to get around. That just sets you up to be able to market better as you move towards the more pricier, capital side of things that help draw people in.”

In a parks and rec department analysis that featured two public meetings with over 700 people, the comprehensive plan concluded that more trails, a splash pad, indoor playground, aquatics, picnic shelters, water sports, a community garden, outdoor athletic fields, and an indoor multipurpose gym rank as some of the public’s highest interests for future updates.

Mayor Ronnie Michael confirmed that the council will stick to its procedure of reviewing the full comprehensive plan before making an official approval action in a vote at a future meeting: “You will get the 200-page report and then have time to digest it and everything before we ever consider it.”

The Albemarle City Council is set to meet again on June 2 at 6:30 p.m. in the City Hall Council Chambers.