The Ottawa County Parks & Recreation Commission is preparing its five-year Parks, Recreation, & Open Space Plan that will be released in 2021.

“Our five-year plan is crucial to the success of our parks system,” said Jason Shamblin, Ottawa County Parks Director. “It not only ensures that we are eligible for state grant funds, like the Michigan Natural Resources Trust Fund that has helped fund some of our biggest projects, it also provides a road map for park and trail development and accessibility improvements.”

Ottawa county residents and park visitors can help build and guide this plan most effectively by participating in surveys being released by Ottawa County.

The Ottawa County Parks & Recreation Commission hopes to hear from citizens this spring while conducting its 2020 Resident Survey. “Whether or not you are a regular park visitor, if you own a home in Ottawa County, your tax dollars make this park system possible. We appreciate that and want to hear from you.”

If you are an Ottawa County resident, please help improve your parks and plan for the future by taking the resident survey before May 15, 2020: bit.ly/2020-parks-survey

In addition, a Park Visitor survey will be conducted in early summer at a variety of parks in Ottawa County. It is open to both residents and non-residents. More information will follow.

Appendices of the 2021 Parks, Recreation, & Open Space Plan will contain aggregate data from survey respondents; it will not contain any information to identify individual survey respondents.

Click here to take the 2020 Ottawa County Parks & Recreation Resident Survey

Encuesta Disponible en Español

You can find the plan that was released in 2016 online: miottawa.org/Parks/park-plan.htm