Community Engagement

Public Outreach Importance and Process

Community engagement and direction are critical to the master planning process. Opinions and ideas received from the community are the foundation for the vision, guiding principles, and action items for OV Trails Connect. Direct communication from the community provides the Town with current opinions of existing trail and path offerings, reveals opportunities to improve, and offers a glimpse into the needs for all network users.

Building on OV’s Path Forward General Plan outreach findings, derived from the largest and most successful community engagement in the Town’s history, OV Trails Connect utilized a focused process to further engage the community, understand needs, and analyze results of opinions and ideas. The General Plan’s robust outreach process gathered values and recommendations from thousands of residents, stakeholders, and user groups, to obtain diverse and well-rounded comments on Oro Valley’s current trails and paths as well as what opportunities exist for the future.

Trail Side Chats

Town staff visited multiple popular path and trail locations to hear directly from users and gather ideas and suggestions as part of Trail Side Chats. Staff asked participants to leave sticky notes with things they liked best, challenges to use, and what could be improved. The Town received approximately 230 comments from participants. Events were held at the following locations:

Big Wash Trailhead
Camino Rancho Feliz Parking Area – Loop
Vistoso Trails Nature Preserve
Steam Pump Village
Linda Vista Trailhead

Project Dedicated Website

The interactive, project-dedicated website is OVTrailsConnect.com. The website included updates on the project, events where residents can share their knowledge and expectations, and interactive tools that allow for one or multiple methods of participation. Over 700 respondents contributed their opinions through the website. Visitors were encouraged to provide input utilizing the following website tools:

An electronic survey
Interactive mapping tool to identify issues, assets, and improvements
Online forum where users were asked to “Share your big idea”
Interactive trails and paths budgeting tool to help determine priorities
Form to submit general comments or inquiries

Focus Groups and User Groups

Touch points with the community occurred via pop-up events, social media, online stakeholder groups, website visits, and more. Signs were also placed around the community, specifically near popular paths/trails and trailheads, that encouraged users to go online and share their feelings and suggestions.

Stakeholder groups contributed nearly 200 more comments directly about the OV Trails Connect project. Nearly 250 comments relating to paths and trails were also recorded during the OV’s Path Forward public outreach process. Other groups that provided input include, but are not limited to, the following:

OV’s Path Forward Resident Working Group
Regional Agencies Group, including:
- Arizona Department of Transportation
- Arizona State Land Department
- Arizona State Parks and Trails
- Golder Ranch Fire District
- Pima County
- Pinal County
- Town of Marana
- US Forest Service
Town of Oro Valley Town Council
Town of Oro Valley Parks and Recreation Advisory Board
Local Resorts
Trails Stakeholder Group including residents and various user groups
Youth Advisory Council

Overview of What We Heard

With a multi-faceted public outreach process strategy, the Town was able to receive balanced comments from many different resident and user groups. A few major themes were derived from the community engagement, which became the core pillars of the vision and guiding principles of this plan. These repeated themes showed up both in praise of the current system and when identifying opportunities to improve in the future, and include:

Reinvesting in Existing Assets
Enhancing Community Connectivity
Growing a Safe and Accessible Network
Improving Signage and Wayfinding

For more information on the vision and guiding principles, please visit The Basics.

Other key findings included:

Residents value and frequently utilize the Town’s current network. Approximately 9 out of 10 respondents noted that both paved paths and unpaved trails close to home were “important” or “very important,” with approximately 8 out of 10 saying the same for Vistoso Trails Nature Preserve and the Loop. An amazing 44% of respondents reported using multi-use paths at least once a week, with another 38% and 37% reported the same for unpaved trails or the Loop respectively.
Performing preventative upkeep and regular maintenance was by far the top improvement priority desired by users. Increased connectivity to other trails and paths, cultural destinations, and places like school, work, parks, or shopping, followed closely behind.
Nearly 70% of respondents reported using apps or devices to track their outdoor activities (even with 75% of respondents being over the median OV resident age of 55). This shows how important digitally tracking fitness can be for all age groups. Mapping that can be plugged into outdoor apps and accessed from cellular devices will cater to how residents utilize the system and can bridge the gap many noted with current mapping and wayfinding/signage conditions.
The majority of outreach participants (81%) use the paths and trails system to walk, and over half use it to hike or road-bike.
Unpaved trails had the most perceived barriers to use, with surface conditions, insufficient trailhead parking, lack of wayfinding and mapping, and safety and accessibility concerns being more prevalent than with other trail types.

Full Public Outreach Summary

For a detailed breakdown of all data received during the public outreach process, comments from Trail Side Chat and stakeholder participants, and key insights gained for each trail/path type, please see the full OV Trails Connect Public Outreach Summary(PDF, 10MB) .

Building on Other Town Plans

OV’s Path Forward

The 2026 Oro Valley General Plan, titled "OV’s Path Forward," is a comprehensive framework designed to guide the Town’s decisions over the next 10 years. It focuses on preserving the community's unique character while addressing future challenges and opportunities. The plan emphasizes stakeholder engagement and collaboration, ensuring that decisions reflect the values and priorities of Oro Valley residents. Over 10,600 comments were provided during the outreach process to guide OV’s future. 74% of participants believed that the Town should be known as an “outdoor/recreational community.”

OV’s Path Forward includes recreation, trails, connectivity, and accessibility; some of the key guiding principles overlap with goals and interests focused on in this plan. Areas of overlap include:

Improve traffic, bicycle, and pedestrian safety, especially at major intersections
Provide accessible recreational options for all ages and abilities
Support a variety of sports and activities
Expand biking, hiking, walking, running, and equestrian trails and connectivity
Conserve the natural desert and mountain views
Protect significant native vegetation, especially heritage saguaros and established ironwood trees
Maintain and create wildlife corridors
Expand open space conservation areas
Prioritize environmental resource conservation and restoration when considering development and transportation infrastructure

OV Trails Connect responds to the identified priority of a strong trails and pathways network in OV’s Path Forward, and seeks strong alignment with the general plan’s community dialogue, relevant goals, policies, and action items.

2021 Oro Valley Parks and Recreation Master Plan

The purpose of Town of Oro Valley’s Parks and Recreation Master Plan (PRMP) is to create a roadmap for future renovation and expansion of parks, trails, open space and facilities and programming for the Town over the next 10 years following publication. This plan is based on recognized park planning principles and standards, and reflects input from residents and stakeholders in Oro Valley, Town staff, the Parks and Recreation Advisory Board and the Town Council.

OV Trails Connect incorporates resident comments and priorities from the Parks and Recreation Master Plan data. “Trails and Connectivity: Desire for a connected, accessible recreational trail system that also supports active transportation and safe routes to school” was a main theme of community input.

During that plan’s public outreach process, 61% of participants indicated a need for multi-use paved paths, and selected them as their top important facility to their household. Multi-use paved paths were identified most strongly as a high-priority amenity Town-wide.