Washoe County revealed the results of its Rancho San Rafael master plan Wednesday night after hearing from neighbors about the changes they want to see.
Considering that this is the kick-off of phase 2 of the project, no changes are set in stone yet.
There's a lot of different ideas right now such as adding tennis courts, more parking, adding another park entrance off of McCarran Boulevard, and improving the overall flow of the park.
Faye-Marie Pekar, park manager for Washoe County, says, "Some of the biggest changes that we're seeing or would be the biggest impacts is the tennis center that's on the corner of McCarran and Virginia, another amenity that has been asked for is potentially a skate park or a bike pump park."
After looking through all the plans at the meeting, some other ideas that people like are adding a succulent and children's garden, more signage, and enhancing the workout structures.
Jay Howard, Washoe valley resident, shares, "I think it's really important to have trail connectivity into and out from this park."
Remy Bernarda, Reno resident, says, "In particular the indoor courts for us are really important since we don't have any facilities now in the area for that."
However, some people question if the park would be able to financially maintain itself after all these new changes and how they might impact the nature throughout the park.
Jennifer Kent, Reno resident, says, "If we add parking and more urban infrastructure it is taking away from the natural beauty and landscape of the park."
Rancho San Rafael Park is largely known for hosting the Reno balloon races. One man who works for the event says he worries about the northeast parking lot being replaced with structures as they charge for VIP parking there and heavily depend on parking revenue to keep the event free.
Ron smith, member of the board of directors for Great Reno Balloon Race, says, "We're concerned about that. They are talking about additional parking across the way on McCarran Boulevard. That is yet to be seen and eventually will turn up."
Overall, most people say they're looking forward to seeing what changes could be made to the park.
"I've looked through all of the boards and it looks pretty amazing actually," says Bernarda.
"Seeing all of the plans that that they've outlined is really exciting," adds Kent.
"I mean Rancho San Rafael is a super important park for this area and it's really neat what I see they have planned," says Howard.
The public is encouraged to continue sharing their thoughts with the survey. It will be open until the end of August and then final plans will be presented later this winter.
