Lewisville Healthy Infrastructure Plan in final steps to be adopted

Lewisville Leader
By Arianna Morrison | Star Local Media
February 7, 2023

The City of Lewisville has been working on its Healthy Infrastructure Plan since October 2021 to make sure all of its residents have opportunities to live healthy lives through the city’s services.

Lewisville City Council met on Monday, Feb. 6 to receive an update on the Healthy Infrastructure Plan, which was previously presented to the city's planning and zoning commission on Jan. 11. The last meeting city council had with the steering committee in regards to the Healthy Infrastructure Plan was in August.

Since that time, city staff has finished all of the assessments, done more engagement with the community, and finalized a draft of the plan. Healthy infrastructure in relation to the plan represents facilities and amenities that provide opportunities to enhance quality of life and the overall health of residents and their community.

Components in the plan include parks, recreation, trails, tree canopy and equity. In terms of parks, the Healthy Infrastructure Plan aims to review the existing park system and ensure the system meets the needs of the community. For recreation, the plan focuses on analyzing indoor recreation facilities and future needs.

The plan is also meant to improve trails and bikeway connectivity throughout the community, identify the tree canopy and determine methods to improve it throughout the city, and ensure quality facilities are equally distributed throughout the community.

When it comes to the overall report, it’s made up of eight chapters that will focus on the purpose and background, Lewisville today, Lewisville tomorrow, more play, more nature, more connections, more access, and recommendations.

Assessments were done in regards to more play, more nature, more connections, and more access. The parks and recreation department found key themes in more play, which was that the community wanted more shade, expanded access through trail connections, filling gaps in the system through partnerships, improvements on sense of safety, and flexibility in recreational spaces. The department also found that key themes in terms of more nature included allocated more natural and unprogrammed spaces, increasing biodiversity, and incorporating sustainable practices into parks and facilities.

For more connections, key themes included utilizing available resources to make more trail connections, continuing to implement the parks and trails wayfinding plan, allowing for a variety of trail types, and enhancing amenities along the trails. For more access, key themes included the equity index which is used to identify gaps in service areas that were most vulnerable, exploring additional free or low-cost programs, and that neighborhoods should continue to be evaluated to show improvements over time.

The Healthy Infrastructure Plan is in its final phase of the process, which is to adopt the plan at the Feb. 20 council meeting. In March 2023, the parks and recreation department will submit the adopted Master Plan to the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department for review and approval.