A Master Recreation Plan for High River is a step closer to reality after an open house Thursday night at the Highwood Memorial Centre.

The Plan is going to guide the Town's planning over the next ten to twenty years when the town's population is expected to reach the 25,000 mark.

Lisa Reinders with the Town says they're looking at anything and everything that falls into that category.

"Recreation really is more of an umbrella word, it does include sports, it includes culture and arts and it also includes those outdoor activities where you just go for a walk around the park," she says.

Gary Debny with McElhanney Consulting Services says the town's pool and rinks are nearing the end of their lives while the building itself could be re-purposed for things like indoor playgrounds, bmx or skateboarding or even theatre or performing art spaces because the building they're in is still sound with a number of years left in it.

Reinders says there were a couple of recommendations that have come out of previous consultations.

"We do want connected trails throughout the town and that's a priority, and then we also have a recommendation to look at our outdoor faculties whether they're baseball diamonds or soccer fields and make sure that we have enough of those outdoor facilities to meet the needs of the community as out population grows," Reinders says.

A couple different concept drawings were shown off, one with separate buildings housing a leisure pool and twin arenas and other buildings for arts and recreation around an open area. The other was a multi-plex idea with everything contained under one roof.

The consultants and the Town will be going over the responses they received at Thursday's open house to come with a plan to take to town council.