The recently completed community recreation services plan is set to guide future city council and staff decisions, according to city manager Beth James.
The 136-page document was borne out of a lengthy community consultation about city facilities such as parks, trails, swimming pools and ice arenas and their use.
City council unanimously approved the plan Monday night, setting the stage for staff to come back with an implementation plan for the report's seven recommendations.
"We will do implementation around each of these because it will involve a significant amount of community consultation," said James.
One of the underlying messages of the report is that the city is at capacity when it comes to recreation services, said Dan Adamson, who worked on the project along with park planner Laurie-Anne Kosec.
"So it's not saying 'no' to new development, but it's just being extra cautious that we know what we're getting into for the long term, that we've got something already... ," Adamson said. "We just need to be extra careful."
Being careful includes strengthening partnerships and finding new ones for updating and replacing facilities, such as ball diamonds and Masich Place Stadium.
As part of the plan, the city contracted Mustel Group to conduct a telephone survey. The random sampling of 462 respondents in March suggests recreation interests are very diverse across the city's population.
The survey identified 27 different outdoor recreation categories and 14 indoor recreation activities, with the most popular outdoor category named as walking or hiking.
The survey also suggests a high level of satisfaction with the city's indoor recreation facilities. The P.G. Aquatic Centre is the most commonly used facility, with 37 per cent of respondents indicating they used the pool at least once per month. Eighteen per cent of respondents said they use the Four Seasons Pool at least once per month. The telephone survey was accurate 19 times out of 20 with a margin of error of plus or minus 4.6 per cent.
Surveys completed by recreation groups and user suggested the city requires improvements to outdoor infrastructure in parks, more river front parks and trails, better maintenance of park washrooms, better trail maintenance and trail connectivity between neighbourhoods. Those stakeholder surveys also suggested the city's primary role in recreation should be providing recreation facilities (not necessarily operating) and supporting others who provide activities.
