CSD, Groundwork complete first community listening sessions at two Los Alamos parks

Los Alamos County’s Community Services Department (CSD), working with Groundwork Studio, completed the first community listening sessions for Dinosaur Park on Barranca Mesa and Grand Canyon Playground in White Rock. The meetings, held Feb. 6, 2026, were framed as initial opportunities for residents to say what they love about each park and to begin shaping ideas for future planning.

CSD and Groundwork Studio organized the sessions as the opening step in a county-led engagement process. Officials described the initiative as an effort to center local preferences and lived experience in decisions about park amenities, programming, and stewardship. By soliciting direct input at two neighborhood parks, the process signals a shift from top-down planning toward a model that prioritizes resident voice in how public outdoor spaces evolve.

The sessions concentrated on on-the-ground listening rather than formal presentations. Holding meetings at Dinosaur Park on Barranca Mesa and at Grand Canyon Playground in White Rock allowed organizers to meet residents in the specific settings under discussion. That approach gives planners immediate context for users’ observations and makes it easier to connect suggestions to physical features, access points, and everyday use patterns.

For local residents, the listening sessions matter because community feedback can influence policy choices and budget priorities in Los Alamos County. Parks and recreation funding, maintenance schedules, and decisions about play equipment and landscape treatments are governed by municipal processes that respond to public input. When residents turn out to speak about what they value in a park - from shade and seating to pathways and play surfaces - those comments enter the record and can guide planning recommendations.

The partnership with Groundwork Studio brings outside design and facilitation capacity to a municipal process, which can speed technical analysis and translate community preferences into concept sketches and implementation options. CSD and Groundwork Studio characterized the Feb. 6 meetings as the first step in a broader engagement timeline that will include analysis of input and follow-up opportunities for community review.

Next steps for readers will be how the collected feedback is synthesized and presented back to the public. Residents should expect CSD to compile the input from Dinosaur Park and Grand Canyon Playground and to use that compilation to inform subsequent outreach and any design alternatives. For people invested in the day-to-day life of parks in Los Alamos and White Rock, continued participation in the process is the primary avenue to shape outcomes that affect recreation, neighborhood character, and public spending.