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Diamond Springs resident Robert Smart Jr. wants to know what happened to the parks for the Diamond Springs-El Dorado area.
A longtime member of the county Parks and Recreation Commission, he believes the Diamond Springs-El Dorado area is being cheated out of the same recreational amenities that other parts of the county enjoy.
“El Dorado Hills has its own special district and does a good job. Cameron Park has one as does Georgetown Divide. Even the Tahoe Basin has a recreation program. But with no community service district in our area, isn’t it the county’s responsibility to provide these services?”
Currently he said the city of Placerville is having to absorb some of the demand for recreational services from Diamond Springs-El Dorado residents.
He said the county has adopted a master plan for recreational facilities and his area needs four neighborhood parks just for the existing population. But with no staff or money to implement the plan it’s a dead issue. He said they had previously developed the framework for a community service district but once the county eliminated the staff in the Parks and Recreation Department everything stopped.
He claims that since the General Plan was adopted in 2004 numerous developments have been approved or are in the planning phase but there is no guarantee any parks or other community improvements come with those developments.
Smart claims that the current process of updating the General Plan and Zoning Ordinance is the ideal time to address the need for recreation facilities in his area and hopes residents will bring up the topic at workshops scheduled for the board of supervisors.
Contact Dawn Hodson at 530-344-5071 or dhodson@mtdemocrat.net. Follow @DHodsonMtDemo on Twitter.
