By Paul Thompson
Northeast News

The Kansas City, Missouri Parks and Recreation department is seeking public input on potential improvements to Prospect Plaza Park.

To that end, the Parks Department has collaborated with the Independence Plaza Neighborhood Association on a survey designed to help shape the department’s Master Plan moving forward. Though no renovations or additional features are planned for the immediate future, representatives with the Parks and Recreation department suggested that the survey is a first step towards eventual improvements.

“I don’t have any specific dates or timelines, but we are trying to get the Master Plan updated as soon as possible,” said Chad Hollingsworth, a landscape architect Parks and Recreation’s engineering, planning and design division.

The survey seeks information in six categories to help the Parks and Recreation department develop new features for Prospect Plaza Park: 1) asks for the age of everyone in the survey responder’s household; 2) asks for all outdoor parks and recreation facilities the responder and their families visit outside of Prospect Plaza Park; 3) asks survey responders to rank various potential features for the park; 4) asks responders to rank preferred actions for improving safety and security at the park; 5) requests any other feedback regarding Prospect Plaza Park; and 6) contains an optional request for contact information from the survey responder.

Parks and Recreation relied on the help of neighborhood leaders to come up with the questions.

“I met with the Independence Plaza neighborhood group,” Hollingsworth said. “We took their input, as well as the conversations that were had here in the Parks department.”

Currently, Prospect Plaza Park features a basketball court, tennis courts, and a baseball field, as well as a small playground. New features that have been considered for the park include a skate park and a soccer field.

“There’s a lot of strong opinions on the park, and there was some discussion of skating elements that got some resistance,” said Hollingsworth. “Futsal would be a great solution for the tennis courts. We had discussed that, but we wanted to make sure that the folks in that area would be supportive of that idea.”

The survey will remain live until Wednesday, January 17. It can be found by going to kcparks.org, searching for ‘Parks’ under the ‘Places’ tab at the web site’s home page, and scrolling down to ‘Prospect Plaza Park.’ Otherwise, here’s a direct link to the survey.