Young Park's future gets a price tag — and a postponement

If you read nothing else

• Three of seven seats were filled. Districts 1 and 3 are vacant — and Young Park is in District 3.
• Staff asked the board to choose among three master plan options for Young Park. The board chose none of them.
• Renovation is the baseline; hybrid runs roughly double it; the full "reimagined" version runs 200–250% of baseline.
• The parking lot alone is $4.5 million, and staff said it will likely be split into a separate project.
• Recent city projects came in 88% and 35% over estimate. The director called budgeting "quite unreliable."
• Tabled to September 17, with a work session to be scheduled first. Contractors are already on board and ready for Phase 1.

Who was in the room

Public comment

Kept at length on purpose. Every point raised is listed, in the order the minutes record it.

How the plan was built

Katherine Harrison-Rogers presented, with Stantec on the line. The engagement record: seven focus groups with 23 participants total, two pop-up events (one at the Farmers Market, one during the Renaissance Festival), a public survey early in the cycle, and two general public meetings with the neighborhood at Lynn Middle School.

Residents and focus groups landed on similar priorities: water play first, trails second, improvements to park furniture third. Averaged across groups, the top amenities were lighting, amphitheater renovation, and public art.

In a "Love it or Change it" exercise, the public loved the shade and trees, then the pond, then open space. What they wanted changed: improved safety, more parking, and improved amenities.

Eighty-seven percent of people polled thought a carousel was an excellent idea.

The three options

Renovation — the baseline. Take care of what is there, add trees and shade. Consolidate scattered playgrounds into one location to maximize space. Add multiuse courts. The tennis courts would not be touched, as they are already well used. Bathroom improvements, larger pavilions and more shade structures where it makes sense. Pond work rated high on every list: new lining, new aeration, potential dredging, better circulation. Staff also flagged that there is no good pedestrian walkway from the school into the park, calling that absolutely necessary.

Hybrid — renovation plus modifications to the pond, consolidated service buildings for utilities and Parks & Rec, fenced for security with space for a rollout dumpster at larger events. Fish cleaning stations, a formalized promenade, a flex space (carousel or otherwise), a consolidated play area, an area for food trucks, and improved bathroom facilities.

Reimagined — the full version. Total redesign of the parking lot including a food truck area, a combination pavilion and restroom, water play, a mega-playground, multiuse courts, a renovated restroom and more pavilions, and a dog park, which drew a lot of public interest. Maximized fishing and recreation around the pond, a carousel, a larger amphitheater, the pond used as a boundary to bring people closer to the water, and a memorial trail for the tragic events that happened there. Consolidated utilities and a fenced Parks maintenance yard.

What things cost — and why staff won't stand behind the numbers

Board Member Amezquita asked for projected costs per option, then pressed further, asking staff to itemize cost by feature so the city knows what it gets for its dollars. Bingham agreed they would, but warned the answers would be ranges.

The reason is a track record of overruns. The restroom at PPP was budgeted at $325,000 and came in at $610,000. The Apodaca Park project came in 35% above what consultants had identified, based on comparable projects in the state one and two years earlier. Bingham cited tariffs, economic uncertainty, and the cost of energy, and said budgeting is now becoming quite unreliable.

On funding, Bingham raised the Land and Water Conservation Fund, which can be used to renovate parks or build new ones at up to $15 million per location — but requires a one-to-one match, which the state can help with via capital outlay or grant programs. A suggestion was raised to ask the county to help fund the work. Staff noted a complete renovation would probably have to be phased.

Legacy Parks: how Young Park got here

Bingham explained the framing. When he began with the city three years ago, he found many parks carrying heavy deferred maintenance — a barrier to people using and enjoying them, and a barrier to economic development, since businesses weigh parks when choosing where to locate.

He proposed a legacy park project identifying 12 core parks that were older and key to the community, to be fixed up strategically. Apodaca and Pioneer were first, as they already had significant funding. City Council then asked to forgo Pioneer and add Young.

His own caveat, recorded in the minutes: of the 12 parks, the two most expensive and most in need of work are Apodaca and Young — so there could be misconceptions about the legacy project as a whole, because the chosen two are the most costly.

Where the board pushed back

Bradley noted there are already a lot of bathrooms and pavilions around the pond, with current pavilion capacity of 1,500 people, and asked how much more shaded seating can be accommodated. That opened the meeting's longest thread: the balance between shade structures and trees. Structures give permanent year-round shade but take more maintenance; trees give less in winter, and Las Cruces needs year-round shade. Bingham added that shade varies by species and height, that some evergreens in the parks serve as landmarks, and that pines are dirty with a reputation for starting fires.

Amezquita said there are a lot of things to add, but it comes back to balance — keeping the park aesthetically pleasing while staying close to nature with trees and grass.

On the pond, board members asked why it needs a total revamp if the public is content with it. Bingham answered that there have been fish die-offs from lack of aeration, that circulation struggles in places, and that shallowness creates problems — and that if you rebuild the aprons around the pond without going into the pond itself, the money is wasted. He put the sequencing question to the board directly: is the pond the central feature that has to go first so everything else lines up, or can it wait?

On parking, Bingham reported the split in feedback — the neighborhood group wants a small parking lot, regional users want a larger one. A suggestion was raised to allocate the parking money to Soldado instead, which has no parking; staff said that is already on their radar.

Bradley asked whether the city could self-perform some of the work instead of contracting it out. Bingham said he had wanted to build a construction team when he began and currently has a partial one; they can do some concrete and pathways, and the biggest challenges are fixing pathways and irrigation, but they could not do a concrete multiuse basketball court.

Bradley then asked for a work session, saying there are limited board members and this is an in-depth subject. Amezquita agreed. Harrison-Rogers noted that tabling would need two pieces — tabling to a date certain, and a recommendation that it go to a work session — and flagged the timing: the contractors are on board and about ready for phase one, once the board's recommendations come in.

The rest of the agenda

Minutes (April 16) were approved with an unusually long correction list — including changing "Michael Amezquita" to "Arturo Fierro" in three separate places, and restoring Amezquita's statement that his councilor asked him to advocate for ADA across all parks based on adopted priorities, and that he plans to advocate for tennis courts at the East Mesa Complex, where the planned courts are all pickleball.

Board elections: Bradley volunteered for Vice-Chair but will not be at the June meeting; elections move forward in June regardless. Bingham said the vacant board seats need to get filled.

Upcoming events: indoor volleyball grew from 22 teams last year to 32 this year. Outdoor soccer begins July 11, flag football August 17 at its new home at PVD, summer basketball June 10–July 6, and swim lessons run June 1–July 17 at East Mesa and Laabs. Online volleyball registration fills in about five minutes. Kid camps run seven weeks at $20 per week, 7:30–5:30, at three Las Cruces Public School locations plus A. Fielder Memorial Safe Haven, with teen programs at Frank O'Brien Papen and East Mesa Recreation Center. Music in the Park runs every Sunday through September 6. Movies in the Park is at Young Park. July 3 brings a 5K and one-mile fun run plus an electric light parade at 8:45 themed "Stars, Stripes, and City Lights"; July 4 features 49 Winchester at Lou Sisbarro Park, gates at 4:00, fireworks at 9:45.

Board member comments — two procedural fixes

Amezquita brought two ideas for new procedures. The first directly addresses the public commenter's complaint: allow Greg Shervanick to come forward with a written statement of his concerns, read verbatim, then make a motion to allow it into the minutes as is — provided the board is not making any obligation or commitment to anything he provides. Bingham said he will look this over.

The second: formally track action items on a spreadsheet — originator, date, title, description, and point of contact — and make it a permanent item on the agenda, going through each open item to check status, removing items when closed. He tied this to a standing failure: the online trail map has not been updated in over a year. Bingham said staff will have comments on that at the next meeting.

Bradley thanked staff for the discussion, asked again about the maps update, and raised the downtown splash pad, citing a lot of discussion online about kids slipping and falling because it is very slick with nothing to prevent slipping. She also asked whether the board could get a presentation on plans to increase Parks & Recreation's income, noting how relatively low it is.

Recorded votes

Left open at the gavel