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BROWNS SUMMIT — A preliminary master plan for developing Haw River State Park suggests improvements to the existing environmental center in the short term, plus development of an interim area nearby for picnicking and other outdoors activities.

Consultant David Swanson on Tuesday also laid out a longer-range vision, including seven miles of hiking trails, camping areas and other amenities in a new area off Church Street. He made his presentation at an evening meeting in the park environmental center.

The meeting drew about 100 residents, who generally reacted favorably to the plan but offered numerous suggestions to make it better.

“This is a young park,” landscape architect Swanson said. “It is in an area with a lot of conservation value along the Haw River corridor.”

The meeting was hosted by the state Division of Parks and Recreation, which hired Swanson’s Carrboro firm to prepare the plan to guide the park’s growth for two decades.

The park system is gathering public comment on Swanson’s proposal until Nov. 4, both by traditional mail and e-mail.

Park officials expect to complete the plan early next year.

The proposal envisions a park that operates almost as two separate entities, including the existing environmental center and the new Church Street area.

Swanson suggested including only hiking trails in the park, advising that even the 800-acre site on Church Street was too small for trails open to mountain bikers and horse riders. Those could come later with more land, he said.

Several members of the Greensboro Fat Tire Society for trail bikers questioned that part of the plan, saying seven miles of trails seemed sufficient for multiple uses.

Greensboro resident Jack Jezorek said Swanson might be overestimating how much camping, picnicking and other activities the site could accommodate.

“It looks like you’re trying to cram an awful lot into 800 acres,” said Jezorek, who served on a committee of Guilford County residents that initially suggested the park in the late 1990s.

The park was authorized six years ago by the General Assembly at the start of its New Parks for a New Century program.

Contact Taft Wireback at 373-7100 or taft.wireback@news-record.com