Trails and the trail map
The trail network and the online trail map, which the board raised repeatedly as un-updated for over a year.
The timeline
- July 16, 2026The work session gets a date; the Young Park vote stays in September
Four members met with no public participation and no vote on Young Park. Staff proposed limiting the August 20 regular meeting to the chair election and holding the promised Young Park work session immediately afterward, with the decision left on September 17. The board also learned the city's park maps are frozen pending web-accessibility rules.
- April 16, 2026Young Park pulled from the agenda; elections deferred for want of a board
The board amended its own agenda to strike the Young Park item before taking it up, then deferred board elections to May because too few members were present. Three of seven seats were filled; Districts 1 and 3 are vacant.
- February 19, 2026Board declines to name the new trail, and gets its first look at the GRT money
Staff asked the board to recommend a name for a trail system running through NMSU and along the Las Cruces Lateral toward the Village of Tortugas. The board postponed the recommendation to March 19 and asked for more names, maps, and the MPO's trail alignments. Staff also briefed the board on the new 0.325% municipal gross receipts tax and asked it to come to March prepared to recommend spending priorities.
- December 11, 2025Ten projects in one sitting, and a gazebo whose lights nobody will claim
With no action items on the agenda, the board heard fall and winter athletics numbers from Meerscheidt and a staff walk-through of ten capital projects, from Apodaca Park's aquatic playground to a three-acre park proposed on the west side of Villa Mora Dam. Public comment concerned missing lights at the Pioneer Women's Park gazebo.
- December 19, 2024The board endorses park dedication — developers build the park, no reimbursement
Six of seven members endorsed the parks section of Realize Las Cruces, the first update to the City's development code since 2001. It would require developers to build a neighborhood park at their own cost with no reimbursement — a mechanism Las Cruces has never used — and, unlike impact fees, it can raise the level of service rather than just hold it.
- September 19, 2024Dog park rules get teeth after attacks at Hermosa — and a 70% veto clause
Staff brought the board a rewritten set of dog park rules, prompted by what the record calls a lot of dog attacks at Hermosa Park, and said that if 70% or more of the community is against them Parks and Rec would return to the drawing board. The board took no action items, and no one spoke at public participation.
- August 15, 2024A summer counted: 70,000 pool visits, 19,000 meals, and no action items
Six of seven board members heard summer program numbers from three staff presenters and a rundown of parks under construction. The agenda carried no action items, and no member of the public spoke at public participation.
- May 16, 2024"The response was not helpful" — a neighborhood asks what the Pioneer Women's Park gazebo costs
George Pearson, president of the Alameda Depot Neighborhood Association, told the board his association e-mailed city staff for the status of the gazebo project in Pioneer Women's Park and got an answer only after their meeting, with no specifics beyond construction starting in a month or two. He asked for the budget, the bidding schedule and estimated construction dates. No action items were on the agenda, and neither staff nor board members made any comments at the end.
- April 18, 2024Park rangers, $2.55 million for two parks, and half the playgrounds over 20 years old
Director Steven Bingham laid out a budget request built on four priorities, including bringing back park rangers as Police Aides to monitor the skate park and higher-crime areas. Staff also presented the near-final Grindline design for the new skate park at the East Mesa Sports Complex and a ten-year wayfinding signage plan that will do ten parks at a time.
- February 15, 2024Four months without an activity pool, and 20-30 parks without names
The board heard that the Regional Aquatic Center's activity pool had been down since October 8 waiting on a custom-made heat exchange coil that arrived the day before the meeting. Staff also opened a multi-month effort to give official names to parks that have none, most of them in District 5.
- September 21, 20233,000 kids, four fields, and fifteen years without a new soccer complex
C. W. Ward of the Las Cruces Youth Soccer Association told the board the league has roughly 3,000 kids and 428 coaches on four fields, has lost fields since a 2012 swap with the school district, and was removed from the joint use agreement around 2014. Board Member Coppedge said he is interested in a committee to further address inequities with youth soccer, and it will be placed on another agenda. Staff also returned with the trail education plan requested in August and reported four locations where trail signage has been removed, but not by staff.
- August 17, 2023Dirt bikes on the non-motorized trails, and no money to enforce anything
Vice-Chair Engle reported a dirt motorcycle riding from Jason Jiron Park up the berm and onto trails that are supposed to be non-motorized. Staff listed signage, volunteers, barriers and education as the available approaches and said there are no significant funds for enforcement, that the wayfinding plan that would supply the rule signage has no funding to implement, and that bollards do not stop motorcycles. Staff agreed to bring an education plan to next month's meeting.
- June 16, 2023A $845,000 skate park redesign, a wayfinding plan with no money to build it
The board heard a near-final skate park design funded by an $845,000 state appropriation and a completed park and trail wayfinding plan whose grant is nearly spent, with no funding identified for the system it designs. Staff also walked the 2018 and 2022 GO bond programs, including a $6.9 million East Mesa sports complex continuation.
- April 20, 2023A fee schedule passes by acclamation with its language still to be written
The board approved the 2023-2024 Fees and Charges and Facility Use Policy "with language added regarding bathroom use and field rental process" — language that did not yet exist when the vote was taken. A motion to table the item to May died, and the reason given on the record was that the policy is already in the queue for City Council in May. Public Participation: "There was none."
- March 16, 2023A finished dog park nobody can open, and a maintenance bill nobody budgeted
Two members of the public pressed the board on the Rinconada dog park, built but padlocked because it cannot be accepted separately from the Animal Services Center. Staff walked through an FY24 budget request that includes three new positions and over $750,000 in vehicles and equipment, and a board member asked why new facilities keep coming online without a maintenance component. The parks deputy director answered with the count: 50 full-time staff for roughly 148 park areas, 60 playgrounds, 40 miles of trails and 33 ballfields.
- February 16, 2023The recording failed, so the minutes were written from memory — and a commenter asked for verbatim minutes
The board's own record opens with a note that the transcriptionist's file of the meeting did not process, so the minutes were summarized from memory and the times approximated. In the same meeting Gregory Shervanick recommended that meeting minutes be verbatim. Six discussion items — trails, the hiking program, the outreach survey, the 50-meter pool, skate park renovations and Apodaca Park — are each recorded in a single paragraph.
- September 15, 2022New pool, new prices, and the end of Frenger — the board sets rates for a 50-meter pool that will not pay for itself
The board approved fees and operating hours for the Natatorium, the city's new 50-meter pool opening early January 2023, and accepted staff's recommendation to close Frenger pool when it does. Staff presented El Paso's numbers as the benchmark: $70,000 in revenue against operations over a million. The naming of a new disc golf course was tabled to October.
- August 16, 2022The board kills the Veterans Park renaming on purpose — tabled indefinitely so no precedent attaches
The Veterans Advisory Board's vice-chair asked for one more delay, then said the group is not so much seeking a name change as a change in the park's usage. The board tabled the item indefinitely, with a member stating on the record that a vote would set a precedent against any future renaming. Staff separately disclosed that the Assistant City Manager had stopped permitting Veterans Memorial Park as of August 12.
- July 21, 2022Veterans want a designation, not a playground — and the director tables the name change to go ask them why
The board tabled the renaming of Veterans Memorial Park to August after the Parks & Recreation director said she had not been part of the earlier conversations and wanted to put questions to the Veterans Advisory Board first. The Veterans Advisory Board's vice-chair told the board the group wants a special-use designation rather than a name change. Three of seven seats were filled.
- May 26, 2022"Next week he will file a discrimination thing with the City"
A former board member told the board that disabled veterans cannot use the Apodaca pickleball courts because there is no restroom and an 8.1% grade, that he would file a discrimination complaint the following week, and that the city wastes roughly a third of its GO Bond money by issuing RFPs instead of bidding work. The board then approved a $8,000 crosswalk-art project whose preparations had already begun and whose press release had already gone out.
- January 20, 2022Four members, no public, and 74 pages of attachments
The board met at City Hall with four of seven seats filled and approved the minutes of July 15, 2021 — the meeting before it. Staff briefed it on the Go Bond program, a 50-meter competition pool at 15% complete, a special-projects spreadsheet, and a fees-and-charges red line the board will take public input on next month.
- March 18, 2021Fifty staff to fifty-seven, and acres added every year: the maintenance math
Held via Zoom webinar. Staff presented the maintenance impact of adding a new facility, reporting parks staffing has gone from 50 to 57 since 2008 while eight positions lost in the recession were never recovered. A second presentation covered splash pad water systems, including that a splash pad costs about $550,000 and that the city's one flow-through pad uses over 2.5 million gallons a year. Capital projects presented total just over $24 million.
- February 18, 2021GO Bond program at 26% on time, and the District 5 park gets a number: $675,000
Held via Zoom webinar. Public Works reported the GO Bond park program is 26% on time and 32% on cash, with Apodaca courts due in May and demolition started at Young Park. Staff said the new District 5 park has a funding source of approximately $675,000 from the Philippou settlement. Board members reported that three City Councilors each described the resolution as a one-off.
- January 21, 2021A park by resolution: the board asks what happens when Council skips it
Held via Zoom webinar. A resident objected that a City Council resolution to buy land and build a park in District 5 bypassed the board's normal process, and the board spent most of the meeting on what that precedent would cost. Staff said park impact fees are the only backup funding source and cannot be used for maintenance at all. No action items were on the agenda.
- November 19, 2020A resident asks where $2.2 million went, and the board gets the whole budget — an $18 million department with closed facilities
Meeting by Zoom with all Parks & Recreation facilities closed under the Public Health Order, the board heard a resident question the accounting on the Nevada Cool Corridor and got the Public Works director's answer on the record. Staff then walked the board through the entire FY21 budget — $11 million in general fund, a little over $18 million in total. The board approved two youth-painted murals and cancelled its own December meeting.
- October 15, 2020Trails routed onto surface streets, forwarded to Council over the cyclists' objection
The board voted unanimously to send the $2.7 million GO bond trails presentation to City Council, after cyclists, a pedestrian advocate, a Safe Routes to School coordinator and an adjacent property owner all objected to routing the Armijo Lateral trail onto McClure Road and other surface streets. The board then tabled all three discussion items to November 19 on a 4-1 vote.
- Approved unanimously — Accept Mr. Trevino's presentation to move on to City Council.
- August 20, 2020Two dozen players write in against the 45-minute court rule — and the board takes no action
The board met on Zoom with no action items on its agenda while a court reservation policy taking effect four days later drew about two dozen emailed public comments, printed in full across pages 11 to 49 of this document. The Chair read the emails aloud; the board took no vote on the policy, and the Director committed to answering every writer individually within 48 hours.
- August 20, 2020The same meeting, filed without the emails: ten pages that say the Chair read them
This is the city's ten-page filing of the August 20, 2020 board meeting — the minutes with no attachments. It records that the Chair read all emails submitted about the pickle ball and tennis scheduling change, that the board took no action on the policy, and that the Director committed to answering every writer within 48 hours. The emails themselves are in the other filing of the same meeting.
- July 16, 2020A new chair, a new splash pad, and a budget the board put off
Meeting by Zoom, the board elected Cassie McClure chair and Stan Engle vice-chair, then approved the Unidad Park playground rehabilitation and splash pad to go forward to City Council. Its first act of the night was to table the FY21 budget presentation to August 20. Staff said the splash pad will discharge to the sewer rather than recirculate, with conversion planned for the future, and could not say what it costs to run.
- June 18, 2020Two GO Bond plans go forward on Zoom, and a resident asks who is paying for the entry road
Meeting by Zoom for the first regular session since February, the board accepted the East Mesa Recreation Complex master plan presentation to move to City Council and approved the Parks & Sports Courts improvements. Three emailed public comments were read verbatim, one of them alleging that entry road funding had been taken "directly from the Go Bond funding as feared" — which the Interim Public Works Director denied on the record. A power outage cost one member his vote.
- January 16, 2020The community pool gets its final concept — three of five public comments answered
A four-member board accepted the final concept design for the new community pool, with ASA Architects reporting that three of the five comments from the August 2019 public input meetings fit inside the project budget and two did not. The board also approved a revised fees and facility-use policy and a Youth Board logo, and tabled its own work session and meeting-location questions to February 20.