Redlands adopts first parks plan with $35M in needs and $8M to pay for them

The City Council adopted Redlands' first Parks Master Plan on June 16, a unanimous vote on a document built with RHA Landscape Architects-Planners and shaped by more than 1,200 residents. It's a roadmap, not a budget — and the numbers make that explicit.

Doug Grove, RHA's president, told the council the city has about $8 million in funded parks projects against another $35 million in identified improvements that would need grants, capital planning, or other future sources to move. Most of the named projects sit on the unfunded side.

The near-term exception is Texonia Park, slated for a splash pad and inclusive playground as early as fiscal 2026-27. Beyond that, the plan lists projects penciled for fiscal 2028 and later, each conditional on funding: a replacement playground, splash pad, and 10,000-square-foot skatepark at Brookside Park; playgrounds and restrooms at Smiley, Crafton, and Redlands Sports Park; pickleball courts at Jennie Davis Park; about 2.6 miles of new trails; and rehab work at three senior and community centers.

For contractors and design-build firms, the plan is a forward look at where Redlands intends to spend if the money materializes — landscape architecture, playground and aquatic installation, trail construction, facility rehab. The operative word is if. Grove framed the implementation list as a living document staff would update as projects move and funding appears, and recommended a feasibility study before the city commits to any pool. Residents themselves leaned conservative: asked how they'd split $100 across parks spending, they put roughly 44 to 45 percent toward fixing existing parks over building new ones.

The signal to watch isn't the wish list. It's which line items get attached to a funding source — a grant award, a capital budget allocation — over the next two fiscal years. Until then, this is intent, not work.