We took what we heard from you during our first round of engagement and developed goals and recommendations for the entire park system. Three concepts have also been developed for the Mississippi Crossings Recreation Area (which consists of Mississippi Point, Chandler, Doris Kemp, and Veterans Parks, as well as as new park opportunity south of the Mill Pond), that will be narrowed down into a preferred direction after this engagement process.

We need your review to ensure this plan reflects the hopes and needs of Champlin residents.

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Park System Goals

The following goals for Champlin’s Park System have been created to guide investment throughout all of the City’s parks. Goals outline the vision for what the park system will be like in 10-15 years.

*Please review the goals below and share your feedback.* You can engage at whatever level works best for you: review the goals at a high level, explore the strategies that explain how each goal can be achieved, or open the strategy drop-downs to see specific actions the city can take to move us forward. Your insights will help strengthen and refine this work.

Goal 1: Offer a diverse range of parks and open spaces that are designed to serve the entire community

Provide a mix of park types that provide both active and passive uses.
  • Community parks serve residents within a two-mile radius, are above ten acres, and provide facilities that are intended to serve the entire community.
  • Neighborhood parks serve residents within a half mile radius, range in scale from one to ten acres, and provide facilities that are intended to serve residents in their immediate vicinity.
  • Greenways are linear in form and primarily contain off-road trails that connect residents between the City’s parks and neighborhoods.
  • Special use facilities offer unique amenities, such as large natural areas, historic structures, or indoor space.
Expand water-based recreation opportunities.
  • Continue to provide and enhance fishing opportunities throughout the City.
  • Enhance and promote motorized boat launches, continuing to provide rental docks and exploring the construction of a jetty to protect the dock system.
  • Expand non-motorized boating opportunities through the improvement and promotion of existing launch points and the exploration of additional launch points, prioritizing locations that would allow for water trail loops. 
  • Coordinate with NPS, Mississippi River National Recreation Area, surrounding communities, and interested private partners to establish a stop for the water trail within Champlin.
  • Continue to coordinate with Lifetime Fitness and ISD 11 to provide public access to pool facilities.
  • Locate a beach or water access point for swimming at a community park.

Goal 2: Ensure park facilities are well distributed, forward-thinking, and appropriately scaled

Build flexibility into the design of park facilities.
  • Consider how facilities can allow for shared uses or multi-season programming.
  • Explore the potential for park buildings to serve as storm shelters and/or resilience hubs for the community.
Provide high quality athletic fields.
  • Continue to prioritize community parks for tournament-grade field facilities.
  • Provide shaded dug outs, spectator seating, backstop, outfield fencing, lighting, and scoreboards for diamond fields within community parks.
  • Provide goals, lighting, and scoreboards for rectangular fields within community parks.
  • Explore opportunities to combine diamond and rectangular field uses where possible and logical, particularly at neighborhood parks.
  • Locate an artificial turf field within a community park and explore cost-sharing opportunities with associations.
Enhance existing sport courts.
  • Continue to utilize colored surfacing and fencing to enhance sport courts in community parks.
  • Utilize standard asphalt surfacing for sport courts in neighborhood parks.
  • Prioritize full basketball courts at community parks and half basketball courts at neighborhood parks as existing facilities require surfacing replacement, taking care to maintain at least one full basketball court per park service area.
  • Provide lit sand volleyball courts at a community park.
Explore maintainable and sustainable ways to maximize winter recreation opportunities.
  • Review existing hockey rink usage, exploring ways to consolidate facilities to those that are most popular and efficient to maintain while taking care to ensure every park quadrant provides at least one hockey and general skating rink.
  • Explore ways to improve quality and length of ice at hockey and general skating rinks.
  • Explore the addition of creative and unique winter recreation opportunities, particularly within the Mississippi Crossings area.
  • Coordinate with associations to provide a dry land training facility for hockey players.
Diversify playground offerings.
  • Continue to replace playgrounds after twenty years of use, updating 1-2 per year.
  • Incorporate variety in target age group, design, and feature types in relation to other playgrounds in close proximity.
  • Continue to engage adjacent residents in decision-making around playground design.
  • Increase availability of nature playgrounds, providing at least one per park service area.
  • Locate an inclusive playground at one of the community parks in conjunction with playground replacement schedule.
  • Explore the addition of a destination play opportunity at one of the community parks.
Incorporate more shade amenities.
  • Provide at least one picnic shelter at every community park.
  • Provide a shade structure or picnic shelter at every playground with over 3,500 square feet of play area.
  • Incorporate shaded seating and play areas when designing new playgrounds.
  • Expand tree plantings along park and greenway trails, utilizing native or native-adapted species and ensuring the spacing of new and existing trees averages no more than 40 feet.
Increase availability of restroom facilities and drinking fountains.
  • Provide permanent restroom facilities at all community parks that are open to the public during programmed seasons.
  • Provide permanent or portable restroom facilities at all playgrounds.
  • Ensure all restroom facilities can be accessed by an ADA accessible trail or sidewalk.
  • Build durable, vandal-resistant enclosures around portable restroom facilities to screen from surrounding residents. 
  • Provide drinking fountains at all park buildings at community parks, as well as near high-use amenities at community parks as needed.
Expand indoor recreation and gathering opportunities.
  • Evaluate existing indoor facilities to ensure they continue to meet community needs.
  • Explore opportunities to partner and share costs with ISD 11, athletic associations, or surrounding municipalities to locate an indoor recreation facility.
  • Continue to engage the community on desired indoor recreation needs, including playgrounds, walking tracks, and sports facilities.

Goal 3: Provide connected, accessible, and safe parks

Ensure trails and other connections through City parks, greenways, and open spaces safely connect users to park facilities and surrounding amenities.
  • Continue to provide a combination of formal and informal trails, sidewalks, and boardwalks to allow for recreation, exploration, and commuting.
  • Improve pedestrian connectivity to and from parks and facilities by coordinating with the public works and engineering departments to install crosswalks and other traffic calming measures.
  • Ensure park system is navigable, utilizing established branding for signage and providing one monument sign per park and standard park identification and rule signage at all park entry points where the park itself does not have public street frontage.
  • Utilize consistent standards for trail design throughout the park system as outlined in the maintenance section, ensuring ADA standards are met wherever possible.
  • Establish ADA accessible trail or sidewalk connections from parking lots or surrounding neighborhoods to all major facilities within the park system.
  • Provide a bench with an adjacent companion area at logical resting points, ensuring one is provided at least every quarter mile (five-minute walk) along major trails and greenways.
  • Provide parking for at least two bikes at all parks; provide additional bike parking based on scale of park amenities and observed use.
Improve safety and accessibility of playgrounds throughout the park system.
  • Establish a routine of inspecting and documenting playground equipment and surfacing quality to minimize liability.
  • Eliminate sand playground surfacing throughout system. Coordinate the replacement of sand surfacing with overall playground updates where possible, or with projects at nearby playgrounds when equipment is not scheduled for replacement within the next ten years.
  • Utilize poured-in-place rubber for all new play surfaces at community parks.
  • Utilize engineered wood fiber as the primary material for all new play surfaces at neighborhood parks.
  • Provide a companion area for wheelchairs or strollers adjacent to all benches around playgrounds.
Enhance access control and security at high-value park and recreation amenities.
  • Provide key fobs at rental facilities that allow for city-controlled access.
  • Install security cameras at popular and high-value park facilities
Upgrade all light fixtures throughout park system to increase efficiency.
  • Continue to install light fixtures that incorporate scheduling and timing functionality as existing lights need replacement or new lights are added.
  • Retrofit all light fixtures throughout park system to LED.

Goal 4: Establish Champlin parks as a destination for residents to gather, connect, and recreate together

Continue to host community-wide events, ensuring venues are appropriately scaled and located.
  • Continue to host Father Hennepin Festival, the Summer Concert Series, and other popular annual events, reviewing the potential to alter or add programming as opportunities arise.
  • Relocate the summer farmer’s market to Andrews Park.
  • Explore event cost-sharing partnerships and sponsorship opportunities where possible.
Continue to provide comprehensive recreation programming.
  • Explore opportunities to expand city-operated recreational programming opportunities for youths, adults, and seniors.
  • Coordinate with associations on programming partnership opportunities.
  • Explore the potential to partner with private businesses to host a yard-game league at Mississippi Crossings.
  • Rebrand the existing Community Center to better reflect its offerings.
Provide opportunities for residents to gather and host within city parks and facilities.
  • Provide a variety of quality rental options for residents to gather both indoors and outdoors.
  • Establish more outdoor spaces and structures that are rentable for public use, prioritizing community parks and providing at least one venue per park service area.
Host recreational tournaments.
  • Continue to partner with athletic associations and surrounding municipalities to host youth sports tournaments.
  • Explore opportunities to expand tournament offerings.
Incorporate art and education throughout the park system.
  • Explore opportunities to partner with local artists to expand park-based public art.
  • Explore ways to expand educational programming and interpretative elements.

Goal 5: Protect and celebrate Champlin’s natural resources

Design and maintain parks that protect water quality and benefit habitat.
  • Establish vegetative buffers composed of native species around all stormwater facilities to reduce mowing needs and detract geese.
  • Establish a tree management plan that evaluates existing tree stock and provides recommendations on treatment and removal of dying and diseased trees, including Emerald Ash Borer and Dutch Elm Disease.
  • Establish a forest management plan that outlines invasive species management and ensures forested areas are healthy and safe.
  • Transition turf grass to low-mow or native prairie plantings in unprogrammed open areas, prioritizing locations that would offer water quality or habitat benefits.
  • Incorporate green stormwater infrastructure when developing or renovating park facilities that are primarily composed of native plant species.
Highlight natural areas and provide educational amenities and programming.
  • Increase access to natural areas by building trails and boardwalks taking care to avoid negative impacts to plant and animal habitat.
  • Develop a signage strategy for identifying native planted areas and educating the public about their benefits.
  • Utilize signage to denote planted areas that are being developed and maintained by adjacent residents.
  • Coordinate with the engineering department to establish a grant for residents to plant and identify native areas, prioritizing areas adjacent to park land.
  • Explore the creation of natural programming opportunities in coordination with other city departments.

Goal 6: Maintain high quality and sustainable parks

Standardize maintenance practices that maximize both park quality and staff resources.
  • Perform routine maintenance to ensure trails and sidewalks are free of major cracks or other deficiencies that could create tripping hazards.
  • Establish a 20-year replacement schedule for playgrounds, performing routine maintenance as needed.
  • Establish a 15-year replacement schedule for asphalt in sport courts and parking lots, performing crack and seal maintenance and restriping every 3-5 years.
  • Reduce frequent mowing to the five feet on either side of a trail or pathway in greenways, stormwater parcels, and other unprogrammed open spaces, taking care to maintain sight lines at crosswalks and major intersections.
  • Maintain native planting areas by mowing and burning in accordance with best practices.
  • Coordinate with other city departments to establish a system-wide map of native planted areas and programmed turf lawns identifying their associated maintenance needs and schedule.
  • Coordinate with the public works department to establish a wholistic approach to irrigation, documenting the existing systems across all parks including their age, components, and coverage. 
  • Explore opportunities to engage volunteers in the upkeep of native planted areas.
  • Identify a location to store wood chips from tree removal for reuse in landscape beds throughout park system and city facilities.
  • Coordinate with public works department to explore addition of a parks maintenance supervisor and other staffing needs, including the potential for additional contracted services.
  • Incorporate stormwater best management practices (BMPs) and provide shade in conjunction with all required parking lot resurfacing and reconstruction projects.
Establish standards for the installation and procurement of park amenities.
  • Standardize purchasing for park benches, bike racks, waste receptacles, drinking fountains, other site furnishings, toilets, and other interior fixtures, sourcing commercial products that have established warranties and are suitable for public use.
  • Provide ten-foot wide, multi-use trails for those that are part of the regional trail network, eight-foot wide trails for those that extend through parks and along greenways, and use narrower widths for trails internal to parks, particularly for those surrounding playground containers.
  • Continue to install and maintain park signage that conforms with city brand standards.
  • Provide park monument signs with associated landscape beds that are maintainable and primarily composed of native species.
  • Continue to utilize established design standards for park facilities that are constructed in-house, such as hockey boards. 
  • Install a concrete maintenance strip under all new fences and hockey boards.

Goal 7: Be a partner in providing local and regional recreation amenities

Explore opportunities to partner and share funding for new amenities and facilities.
  • Establish a biannual meeting with adjacent agencies, including but not limited to Dayton, Brooklyn Park, Three Rivers Park District, and Anoka Hennepin School District, to ensure park investments across all scales in the area are coordinated and complementary.
  • Engage with Dayton staff on a recurring basis to ensure recreation needs based on anticipated growth projections are being incorporated in planning efforts.
  • Partner with the CDAA to conduct a feasibility study for an indoor recreation facility.
  • Coordinate with Three Rivers Park District on the alignment of the West Mississippi River Regional Trail to ensure it enhances public safety and aligns with City park planning efforts.
Continue to coordinate with associations, schools, and surrounding communities on the provision and scheduling of programming at shared facilities.
  • Continue to collect user fees from athletic associations to help offset facility improvement and maintenance costs.
  • Coordinate with athletic associations to expand storage opportunities adjacent to associated facilities.
  • Explore ways to expand partnership opportunities with ISD 11.

What are your thoughts on the system-wide goals, strategies, and actions?

Let us know what edits you have or what things you feel are missing!