Communities adopt a Parks and Recreation Plan every five years, which helps to define the vision, scope, and goals for these services moving forward. The 5-Year Plan also helps to determine whether the direction of the Parks and Recreation Departments matches the desires of residents and is sustainable given available resources. With the expiration of the former Parks and Recreation 5-Year Plan, City of Troy staff has begun a comprehensive re-analysis of the Plan to guide the development of a more realistic vision for the future of Troy’s parks and recreation service offerings.

Although the City of Troy actively works to provide residents with the high quality services that they expect, the previous 5-Year Plan indicated improvements and levels of service from the Parks and Recreation Departments that are no longer realistic. Since 2008, the City of Troy has faced several years of drastically declining revenues. Between the 2007/08 and 2012/13 fiscal years, the total City budget has decreased from over $151 million to $131 million, a drop of $20 million in 5 years. The combined budgets for the Parks and Recreation Departments have dropped from $9.5 million to $6.2 million, a $3.3 million or 35% reduction. In the previous 5-Year Plan, 12 pieces of land were identified as “future park sites.” Since the Plan was put into implementation, 3 of these sites have been improved (Gateway Park, Milverton Park, Big Beaver Rd. Park). The remainders of the “future park sites” are undeveloped and due to financial limitations, it is unlikely that these sites will be developed the in next 5 years.

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