The District Plan

The East Bay Regional Park District is a system of beautiful public parklands and trails in Alameda and Contra Costa counties. The Park District was incorporated in 1934 as a California Special District. The Park District operates under Sections 5500-5595 of the Public Resources Code of the State of California for the purpose of acquiring park, recreation, and open space land and developing, operating, and maintaining this land. The Park District owns or operates over 126,000 acres of parklands, open space, and trails that serve a population of over 2.7 million residents and receive 30 million visits per year. The system comprises 73 parks; 1,330 miles of trails; and 55 miles of shoreline. We manage and preserve natural and cultural resources for all to enjoy and protect. The regional parks are ideal for healthful recreation and environmental education.

Mission: The East Bay Regional Park District preserves a rich heritage of natural and cultural resources and provides open space, parks, trails, safe and healthful recreation and environmental education. An environmental ethic guides the District in all of its activities.

Vision: The District envisions an extraordinary and well-managed system of open space parkland in Alameda and Contra Costa counties, which will forever provide the opportunity for a growing and diverse community to experience nature nearby. 

The East Bay Regional Park District is primarily funded through a combination of property taxes, special assessments that support specific park services, voter-approved bond measures for major improvements and land acquisitions, grants from state, federal, and nonprofit sources, and usage fees from parking, facility rentals, and program participation.

The Board of Directors approves an operating budget and a five-year project and program budget annually. The Park District maintains the highest possible bond ratings (AAA from Standard & Poor’s and Aaa from Moody’s Investor Service) and has received the Distinguished Budget Award and Certificate of Achievement for Financial Reporting for eighteen and twenty-one consecutive years, respectively. 

The East Bay Regional Park District is governed by a seven-member Board of Directors, who are publicly elected to serve four-year terms and represent a specific geographic area (ward) of the District. A map of ward boundaries and elected Board Members is maintained at https://www.ebparks.org/maps. The District itself comprises all of Alameda and Contra Costa counties.  

These Board Members will serve their respective wards in 2025:

• Respect: We honor the land we steward, each other, and the park visitors we serve. 
• Resilience: We creatively adapt to change. We address challenges with empathy, perspective and determination.
• Relationships: Our greatest strength lies in the trust, accountability and teamwork we cultivate with our colleagues, partners and the public we serve.
• Responsiveness: We communicate openly, honestly and reliably.
• Transparency: We hold the public’s trust through meaningful stakeholder engagement and access to timely and reliable information on decisions and performance.
• Equity: To improve access to and use of the parks services for all community members and support inclusive programs, services, and public processes that reflect the tremendous diversity of our community

The District Plan is high-level document that guides the Park District into its next century. It provides a strategic roadmap with key priorities to move the Park District toward the vision of an extraordinary and well-managed system of open space parkland in Alameda and Contra Costa counties, which will forever provide the opportunity for a growing and diverse community to experience nature nearby. The District Plan will summarize and map existing conditions, identify trends, document staff and community input about the future of the Park District, and provide strategies and priorities to achieve the Park District’s vision. 

The Park District has developed prior District-wide plans to guide future expansion of parks, trails, and services, define the District's vision and mission, and set priorities. The most recent plan was the 2013 Master Plan. The District Plan will build upon these past planning efforts and expand to incorporate the changes in the climate, economy, and demographics of the East Bay. For example, over the next century, projected sea level rise will impact the Park District’s 40 miles of San Francisco Bay Shoreline and 15 miles of Delta shoreline; the need for wildfire mitigation and prevention is also expected to continue to increase.  The District Plan will guide the Park District in responding to these changes and continuing to fulfill its vision and remain a leading public agency into the future.

The District Plan will serve as a guiding document, a vision for the Park District, for the next decades. It will identify high-level goals and strategies, and prioritize actions to fulfill the vision of the Park District. Actions will include the types of efforts the Park District will focus on in coming years. 

The District Plan is not a general plan like cities and counties are required to have. General plans do provide high-level guidance, but they also propose land uses and zoning as well as setting land use policy, which the District Plan will not do. The District Plan is not an implementation or work plan and it will not identify specific projects. 

Public input is a key component of the District Plan, and the Park District is committed to ensuring the public has many, varied, and broadly accessible opportunities to help shape the District Plan. The public will be invited to provide input on:

• The vision for the Park District
• Community needs related to regional parks and open space
• Stewardship of natural and cultural resources
• How to make the parks welcoming for all

To ensure that as many people as possible across the East Bay can contribute their thoughts and opinions to the District Plan, the Park District will connect with residents and communities it serves in multiple ways. Opportunities to engage will include:

• In-person and virtual meetings about the District Plan
• Online surveys and activities
• Pop-up booths/tables at parks and community events
• Local community-based organizations

Park District staff and Board are meeting with local government agencies, service providers, and tribes across the East Bay to connect with mayors, city managers, directors, and other leaders about current issues and to understand their needs for the District Plan. 

After gathering input from the community, staff, and other public agencies, the Park District Board of Directors will review and approve the District Plan.

You can email DistrictPlan@EBParks.org with your questions or comments. 

We’d love to help answer your question. Please contact Devan Reiff, Principal Planner, at DReiff@ebparks.org.