The City of Hillsboro Parks & Recreation department is undertaking a System Plan that will guide the development of parks projects in Hillsboro for the next 15 to 50 years. The plan has a strong commitment to equitable community engagement. It will include a clear and complete view of all the services, elements, goals, policies, and facilities of Hillsboro Parks & Recreation Department and how they work together to best serve the whole community.

The plan will include things like:

• What the system looks like today
• Input from the community about parks and recreation wants and needs for the next 15 to 50 years.
• Prioritizing where to build new and reinvest in existing parks and facilities, and services
• Recommendations for investing community resources more equitably and addressing disparities in park and recreation related services.

Since the last Parks Master Plan update in 2010, many more people now live or work in Hillsboro and thousands of acres have been added to the City. Over the next 20 years, tens of thousands more people are projected to move to Hillsboro. This includes future expansion areas as well as our current system. Our diverse communities have new and historically unmet needs and requests for Hillsboro parks and recreation. As Hillsboro grows, we need an updated vision for a system of Parks, Trails, Recreation, Natural Areas, Maintenance, Arts & Culture, Events, Public Spaces, and other services that will best serve the community for the next 50 years and beyond with an immediate focus on the next 15 years.

The Parks System Planning process has a strong focus on including the input and perspectives of Hillsboro's diverse communities. We know the City of Hillsboro has not always included diverse communities in decision making. We are committed to doing something different for this plan. This plan and project will build a new foundation for equity-based planning for the City of Hillsboro and serve as the steppingstone model for future planning approaches.

The equity-based Parks System Planning process includes these unique approaches:

• Equitable contracting and community partnerships. Engaging Women, Minority and Veteran owned businesses first to assist with developing the project.

• A Community Advisory Committee (CAC) made up of members of diverse communities who will provide input and advice to our project team and city leadership on how to best hear and reflect community needs and interests in the new Parks System Plan. 

• Focus on historically/currently marginalized and underserved communities through community-specific engagement with the BIPOC, LGBTQ, people with disabilities, socio-economic disparities, houseless community, and neuro-diverse community, and much more.

• Equity based analysis of the current parks and recreation system. For Example: looking at where investments occurred traditionally and finding approaches on how to reduce disparities within the system for the future.

• Developing equity focused decision-making systems for investment in the future system. This approach is intended to be starting point for future planning projects.

• Long term relationship building. Through the process we are striving to bolster existing and create new relationships with the Hillsboro community and our many diverse groups. To accomplish this our process will focus on transparency, listening to community, and follow through. We will achieve this by developing goals, policies, and implementation strategies that help foster community involvement in developing community-based parks and recreation services.