I wanted to respond to the postings I've recently seen related to the
identification of recreation needs. In my former life, I helped four
Washington communities with Comprehensive Park and Recreation Plans.
Washington communities that want to access the State's park and recreation
grant programs must complete a park plan the documents park and recreation
needs. Park plans typically include the following subjects (i.e.
chapters): (1) description of the community, (2) inventory of existing
park and recreation facilities (quantitative and qualitative), (3) analysis
of need and demand, (4) capital improvement program.
A complete inventory of existing facilities is important since it can
often. In the inventory, you need to determine the role of school
playgrounds and ballfields in the community's overall park and recreation
system. Once you know what you have, you can begin talking about what you
need. National park and recreation standards are often used to begin a
discussion of community recreation needs. The standards are published and
regularly updated by the National Recreation and Parks Association. The
name of the book you want to look for is: Park, Recreation, Open Space,
and Greenway Guidelines (136 pps., National Recreation and Park
Association, 1996). One way to purchase this book is through the American
Planning Association's Planners Book Service. Call 312-786-6344 to order
this book and/or their catalog. National park standards indicate the
number of facilities needed based in population, such as 1 softball field
per 5,000 residents. Another example of a standard is some type of park
within 1/4 or 1/2 mile of every home. These standards are developed by a
bunch of park and recreation professionals that regularly inventory park
and receation facilities in many cities across the country. The standards
represent an average. A word of caution: the use of national standards is
only a piece of the puzzle. They are limited in that relying solely on
national standards does not take into account the preferences and
demographic characteristics of the local population. This is where a
community park and recreation survey comes in. You should attempt to
randomly survey people until you've heard from about 15% of the population.
The best way is either by phone or door to door.
The survey should ask about household characteristics, what facilities the
family currently uses, what facilities they think should be improved, and
what facilities they would like to see provided in the future. Use of
national standards, combined with survey results and personal interviews
with people in the community that are involved in specific programs and
user groups (e.g. people that organize the Little League program). The
survey should not only ask about needed facilities, but also about needed
programs.
One last piece of advice: a pet peeve of mine is that youth are often left
out of the park and recreation planning process. Reach out to them and
find out what they want in their community. We are constantly telling each
other that we need to provide kids with opportunities for constructive,
positive activities, yet we rarely ask them what they want. I'd recommend
exploring the idea of going into classrooms to ask kids about their parks
or conducting a separate youth survey, or a combination of the two ideas.
Contact me by e-mail or at 333-8066 (Boise), if you have questions.
Thanks for Listening,
Jon Barrett
Project Coordinator
Idaho Smart Growth
-----Original Message-----
From: Mayme Trumble [SMTP:maymet@moscow.com]
Sent: Tuesday, April 14, 1998 11:54 am
To: JDANAHY@turbonet.com
Cc: Vision2020
Subject: Re: Parks and Rec.
At 5:05 PM -0700 4/13/98, John Danahy wrote:
> In line with Steve Cook's post, I would like to ask the visionaries
to
>comment on the following question.
>
> How should the Moscow community identify long term recreation needs
>and what method of paying for them is best?
My answer is ANYWAY WE CAN. There need to be multiple ways to pay for
things and I think that that is how this community works. If a group comes
up with a definate plan then people rise to support it in several ways. As
far as long term planning, I think we are doing it. It is a slow process,
but it should be slow inorder for it to be done with thought. I am lobbying
for more soccer fields from anywhere I can get them, but that does not mean
that this is the biggest need and I realize this. Hopefully our city
counci,l schools, clubs and churches have some connections to one another.
How about a door to door survey?? I'd contact 50 homes.
Mayme