Considering Kitsap County Parks & Recreation is likely to temporarily close two popular parks as budget-cutting measures this summer, it may seem like an odd time for the department to undergo the creation of a new 1,000-acre site.

Central Kitsap Commissioner Josh Brown sees differently.

“We want to move away from smaller pocket parks to larger heritage parks to save money, it’s part of the change in the county,” he said. “Passive, open space is as cheap as it gets.”

Brown spoke to a crowd of about 150 people at Klahowya Secondary School on Nov. 19 at the master plan kickoff meeting for the proposed Newberry Hill Heritage Park, located on land stretching from Seabeck-Holly Road and Seabeck Highway to El Dorado.

The land consists of miles of hiking trails and pristine wildlife, said county parks project coordinator Martha Droge, who led the two-hour discussion. The department purchased 247 of the acres in 2004, obtained 530 more from the state Department of Natural Resources in June and is expected to receive the final 280 acres from the department in 2010.

However, Kitsap County does not plan to submit a master plan for the park to the state until June, giving the department time to decide whether to ask for money for more pricey recreational activities or continue focusing on partnerships to maintain the trails and keep the park in its natural state.

“Because of the nature of it, it doesn’t take too much maintenance, and it’s too large of an area to shut down,” Droge said.

The two parks scheduled to possibly close for the summer, Wildcat Lake and Horseshoe Lake county parks, would save the county about $140,000.

A 330-acre portion of the park, obtained through a grant from the DNR, contains special environmental protections under the county’s critical area ordinance because of wetlands and the wildlife in Chico Creek.

“A wetland is a much better carbon sink than even a forest,” Droge said.

Questions were asked regarding public access to the park because the site currently has just one parking lot, near the top end by the school. Droge said the park was open to suggestions for opening another entrance.

A representative from the Kitsap County Rifle and Revolver Club said the group is interested in working with the county on increasing access at the lower end of the park, where the club is located.

Droge also said the trails would be unable to support motorized vehicles under environmental regulations. Members of the public also had disagreements regarding whether to focus on hikers or bikers and horseback riders when reworking the trail system.

Droge said hikers consist of the vast majority of the park’s users.

“It’s paid for by public dollars. It’s public land so all people should be able to use it,” she said.

The county also is required to keep open the trail’s existing logging trails, most of which have been unusable for years, though the county can decide whether to close these roads after becoming an official park. Though the area was once heavily logged, there has been practically no logging in the area in a generation.

“We are developing a forest management policy,” Droge said. “We aren’t planning on commercial logging for some type of profit.”

Concerns were raised regarding a potential influx of homeless people camping in the park.

County parks superintendent Dori Leckner said the issue is rare in parks similar to the proposed area, as opposed to more urban parks like Illahee that are walking distance from major bus routes and services.

Other issues raised were the park’s access to educational opportunities for Klahowya students, the possibility of athletic fields in the area and the importance of clear park boundaries between the park, the school and the surrounding neighbors.

The master plan will be overseen by a steering committee which includes Helen Daly from the county Parks and Recreation Board, Tom Coleman from the Newberry Hill Stewardship Committee and the Central Kitsap Community Council.

Droge stressed the department wants the planning to be an all-inclusive process to provide the community with its vision for the land.

“We don’t have a big pot of money for this project,” she said. “We are going to create a plan to get a pot of money. It is what we call our enlightened frugality.”

The meeting was the first of six planned through the middle of April. The next one is slated for Jan. 12 at Klahowya.