City of San Carlos Parks Master Plan
The San Carlos Parks Master Plan is a long-range guide for shaping the City’s parks, open spaces, and recreation programs through 2045. As an update to the 2009 plan, it responds to growth and evolving community needs with a vision for a more connected, inclusive, and resilient park system.
The City manages 17 parks—including community, neighborhood, mini, open space, and dog parks—plus a youth center, adult community center, athletic fields, sport courts, an outdoor stage, and diverse programs for all ages. These facilities are well-used and highly valued by the community. The plan builds on this strong foundation by assessing current conditions, gathering public input, and defining a phased strategy to guide future improvements aligned with broader City goals.
What Matters Most
Maintain, improve, expandResidents expressed a clear vision for the future: maintain and improve existing parks while expanding access to inclusive, multi-use spaces that reflect San Carlos’s active, family-focused lifestyle. Priorities included a new community pool, updated sports courts, more shaded seating, and expanded indoor recreation and arts spaces.
Key project goals include:Establishing a citywide vision
Prioritizing community needs through engagement
Promoting access and equity across neighborhoods
Creating standards for development and maintenance
Improving long-term care and management
Developing a strategic investment and funding plan
Making it Happen
The master plan is shaped by strong community engagement—surveys, pop-ups, workshops, and online tools gathered input from residents, staff, and stakeholders at every stage. The final document will present clear priorities, phased actions, and funding strategies to guide future decision-making.
Designed to be flexible and practical, the parks master plan will support both daily operations and long-term planning. The final plan will be grounded in data and community input, serving as a roadmap in order to create a more vibrant, connected, and sustainable parks and recreation system for San Carlos.
This project is currently in progress.
Project Details
Pop-up workshop at the San Carlos Farmers Market
In the second round of outreach, the community identified their top improvements to existing sites as well both short- and long-term amenities to prioritize.
GATES provided the City with a custom project logo which was utilized for all web and print collateral.