This conceptual rendering depicts a deck park connecting Plano's Legacy West development with Legacy Town Center.

The city of Plano has adopted a new master plan for parks, trails and recreational facilities that prioritizes access to parks in underserved areas, improved trail connectivity and renovation of the existing park system.

Plano City Council on Monday approved the master plan, which does not provide funding or approval for individual projects but outlines a series of recommendations and opportunities for improvements.

Some of the plan’s key recommendations include building out four parks that the city has yet to complete, connecting more trails to each other and to networks in Richardson and other nearby cities, and expanding recreational facilities and programming for seniors, said Robin Reeves, director of Plano Parks and Recreation.

The plan also illustrates, among other things, a series of ambitious concepts including a park near a potentially redeveloped Collin Creek Mall and a deck park spanning the Dallas North Tollway at Legacy Drive, similar to Dallas’s Klyde Warren Park.

“If there’s going to be residential development in the Collin Creek Mall area, we believe that we should provide parks to the people who live there just like we do to the people in the rest of the city,” Reeves told

Community Impact Newspaper

before Monday’s council meeting.

Council members approved the parks plan by a 5-1 vote. Council Member Tom Harrison cast the lone vote against the plan, saying he did not want to commit the city to the various projects outlined in the plan. Mayor Harry LaRosiliere and Council Member Kayci Prince were absent from the meeting.

A draft of the master plan is available to view

on the city’s website

.

The deck park in the Legacy area is one possible option to make the area near the tollway more walkable while linking Legacy West and Legacy Town Center around a pedestrian bridge, which is already under construction.A previous version of this story incorrectly referred to Legacy Town Center as Legacy Town Central.