Staff photo by Clay Schuldt The Upper Cottonwood/Dacotah West subdivision is one of several areas in New Ulm that is underserved by neighborhood parks. Two parcels of land in this area have recently come up for sale. The New Ulm Park and Recreation Commission held a work session to discuss if this park area or other parkland in the city should be prioritized for development.

NEW ULM — New Ulm’s next neighborhood park will be discussed by the Park and Recreation Commission during a work session on Monday.

The location of New Ulm’s next neighborhood park has been a subject of scrutiny in recent months. Park and Recreation Director Tom Schmitz has indicated that a neighborhood park should have three features: a shelter, playground equipment and a field area. Multiple sites in New Ulm are underserved by a neighborhood park and the Commission is trying to determine which site should be developed next.

Some potential park sites are already owned by the city and have designated park space. They include 2315 Lake Ave.; 1321 Maplewood Drive; 1300 N. Highland Ave.; 1601 Seventh N. St.; and 1415 S. German St.

Some locations are owned by the city but have no designated park space, such as South Goosetown and North Broadway.

Other sites are not owned by the city and have no designated park space; such as Upper Cottonwood Street/Dacotah West subdivision, and North Highland Avenue and Garden Street.

In October, the Upper Cottonwood Street/Dacotah subdivision was brought to the commission’s attention because of a unique situation and opportunity for land acquisition in this area.

The Upper Cottonwood/Dacotah subdivision is currently cut off from other parts of the community. The nearest parks with playground equipment are the park behind the former Target building and Lincoln Park. These two locations were considered too far for children to reasonably walk or bike. For this reason, Upper Cottonwood residents have been requesting a neighborhood park for years. However, since the city does not currently own land in this area for a park, the cost of development could be higher than other park sites.

To fairly prioritize park development, the Park and Recreation Commission is creating a question matrix for determining which parks comes next. Questions and criteria the commission is considering include population, distance to nearest developed park, travel safety to nearest park and funding options.

During Monday’s work session the Park and Recreation Commission will review the criteria for choosing the next park and run a test spreadsheet to determine if the questions and criteria were adequate for determining New Ulm’s next park. The Parks Commissioners will also review the New Ulm Planning Commission discussion. The Planning Commission also reviewed potential Neighborhood Park areas. At the Planning Commissions January meeting, commissioners ranked their top choices for a neighborhood park.

Based on these rankings Upper Cottonwood had the strongest support among the Planning Commission, Lakeside Park was second and Maplewood Park was third.

The Neighborhood Parks discussion will take place following the regular Park and Recreation Commission meeting at 4 p.m. Monday, February 8 in City Hall Council Chambers.