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City launches study on recreation programs
By Jana Seshadri
Besides priding themselves on being high-tech savvy, Sunnyvale residents are equally particular about their recreational activities. To kick off the recreation needs assessment program designed by Sunnyvale's Department of Parks and Recreation, residents gathered to voice their opinions on the city's recreation and leisure programs.
According to Robert Walker, director of parks and recreation, one purpose of this assessment is to determine resident's level of satisfaction with existing recreation programs, facilities and services. The city also wants to determine to what extent residents currently use their programs and receive input about interest in new and future programs, Walker said.
"This is the very first step for revising the residents' recreation needs and open space development," said Cathy Merrill, assistant to the director of parks and recreation.
For the first time the city has sought the assistance of Management Learning Laboratories, a consulting firm, that has for the past 30 years provided comprehensive recreation needs assessment to leisure organizations across the country.
"Last September the city of Sunnyvale requested proposals to conduct a needs assessment for its recreation needs and chose our firm to do the job," said Ananda Mitra, a consultant with the firm.
Mitra said the first step was to gather input from the public about what works and what doesn't in Sunnyvale's parks and leisure areas. Input from residents, neighborhood associations and special groups was collected from a town meeting held at city hall on Jan. 24, four focus group meetings held at the Community Center on Jan. 24 and 25, and teen meetings held at Fremont and Homestead high schools.
A unanimous complaint at the sparsely attended town meeting was the lack of adequate communication by the city with its residents regarding the town meeting and the focus group meetings. Several residents asked Mitra for details about the program and said they did not receive any information from the city. Representatives from a few sports associations said they were not aware of the invitees-only focus group meetings.
"About 200 letters were sent out to all the city-sponsored clubs and the presidents of associations about two or three weeks before the meetings," Merrill said.
The public input from the meetings will enable the consulting firm to design a questionnaire, which will be mailed to approximately 4,000 Sunnyvale homes in March by using a random sample method. A separate questionnaire geared toward teens will be distributed in local schools and city staff will distribute 1,000 user surveys to participants in Sunnyvale's programs at parks, recreation facilities and classes.
"Even a 10 or 15 percent return from the questionnaires would be sufficient to provide an adequate picture of what needs to be done," Mitra said.
He said residents discussed several issues at the meetings. Parents were concerned about shade areas and bike lanes in and around certain parks; soccer association representatives talked about insufficient soccer fields in the city; and some residents wanted more basketball and volleyball courts in public parks. Residents also requested more swimming programs, more play areas and more pet-friendly areas. The availability of classes that the city offers its residents was an issue as residents said classes were always full when they try to register for them.
The information gathered from all the meetings, combined with information from the youth and participant questionnaires will be used to develop the survey/questionnaire, which will be mailed out to the random sample. The results of the survey will provide the final data for the department to look at. After the consulting firm analyzes the survey results, a written report containing the summarized findings will be sent to the city, Mitra said. By early May, the department of parks and recreation will be in a position to start working on their new master plan, he added.
"There is no guarantee on whether every single issue will be looked at right away," Merrill said. "The programs have to do with funding."
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Sunnyvale, California Since 1994
