July 2023 - Parks & Recreation - 46

SIMULATION
recreation amenities - and the willingness
of residents to pay for them.
Saint Paul Residents
Design a Dream Park
When it comes to planning for its
future parks, Saint Paul, Minnesota
- the number two park system in
the nation, according to the Trust
for Public Land's ParkScore®
index
(tpl.org/ParkScore) - keeps
reaching for the highest monkey
bar. Residents love their local parks,
and demand and use are high, putting
pressure on the park and recreation
department to stay in lockstep
with the diverse and growing
local population's expectations.
Saint Paul regularly seeks creative
and inclusive ways to engage
its residents in planning " a city
that works for all of us, " as Mayor
Melvin Carter is known to say. After
success using simulation-based
Some of Saint Paul's youngest community
members shared their input by
drawing their ideal park features.
public engagement tools to gather
input on community sentiment and
priorities during its annual budget
process, the city's park and recreation
department tapped into the
same technology in 2022 to create
a Design A Park " game. "
Using a customizable online engagement
tool, the department's
user-friendly,
interactive
online
simulation (tinyurl.com/2p9s3fnp)
enabled residents to design a new
(hypothetical) park with a $1 million
budget. The data generated
from the tool is helping to shape
Saint Paul's next Parks and Recreation
System Plan, which serves as
a comprehensive guide to physical
improvements and modifications
to parks, athletic fields, recreation
centers, trails and other facilities.
To create their park plans, residents
visited the interactive online
simulation displaying 33 tiles
featuring amenities ranging from
a $1,500 bike rack to an $800,000
splash pad. With each selected tile,
which included an image and associated
dollar amount, a bar across
the top tracked the total spent until
it reached $1 million. Users could
build their park with components
from five different categories:
* Utility (park benches, picnic tables,
drinking fountains, etc.)
* Activities (batting cages, skate
parks, ski trails, dog parks, etc.)
* Courts and fields
(outdoor
tracks, beach volleyball courts,
solo pickleball courts, etc.)
* Decorative (community gardens,
public art, water features)
* Aquatics (splash pads)
After making selections within
the budget limit, residents then
could rank their choices and submit
their park design to the city. The tool
also provided a place for comments.
The process provided a two-way
exchange. Participants learned about
46 Parks & Recreation | JULY 2 0 2 3
| PARK S ANDRECRE AT ION . OR G
the relative (estimated) costs of a park
bench versus a splash pad and how far
they could stretch their park's $1 million
budget. One goal of the exercise
was to reach people who might not
participate in standard community
engagement activities, such as public
meetings or surveys. Utilizing the
tool's tile designs, the game was more
accessible for people from a range of
ages and language backgrounds, as
well as those with limited technology
capabilities or time.
To complement the Design A
Park interactive tool, the park department
created an online " Draw
the Future " webpage (tinyurl.com/
5j44yzdj) for its youngest residents
to draw their ideal park and features.
Submissions included swing
sets, ziplines, pools - even a petting
zoo.
Garnering 1,384 page views, 405
submissions and a 30 percent submission
rate, the Design A Park
initiative educated the park and
recreation department on what is
trending for amenities. While the
results weren't technically attached
to a tangible budget, the data will
be used to identify service gaps and
justify future budget decisions.
Kirkland Uses Simulations
to Aide Park Funding
The City of Kirkland, Washington,
consistently ranks as one of the best
places to live in the state. Its parks
are among the top amenities that
attract more than 90,000 residents.
In recent years, the city heard from
more than 4,700 community members
who shared a desire for more
facilities and recreational opportunities.
The Kirkland City Council is
exploring an accelerated timeline to
deliver increased services and amenities,
which would require placing
a ballot measure to increase property
taxes in front of voters in 2023. In
PHOTO COURTESY OF SAINT PAUL PARKS AND RECREATION
http://www.tpl.org/ParkScore http://tinyurl.com/2p9s3fnp http://tinyurl.com/5j44yzdj http://tinyurl.com/5j44yzdj
July 2023 - Parks & Recreation

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