TRADITIONAL TYPES OF RECREATION FACILITIES
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playgrounds |
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parks (regional, community, neighborhood, and pocket) |
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recreation centers (a new term is multi-generational centers) |
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sports facilities (fields, courts, outdoor areas) |
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art centers |
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civic arenas and auditoriums |
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facilities serving people with disabilities |
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other facilities (zoos, gardens, skate parks, water parks, museums, cultural and historic buildings, etc.) |
NEWER TRENDS IN FACILITY DEVELOPMENT
The newest trends in facility development are:
Commercial Facilities: theme parks and play centers
Examples:
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Diversity in Park Systems
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parks, nature preserves, lakes, swimming pools, gold courses, ice rinks, marinas, camps, environmental centers, museums and historical and cultural sites. |
Facilities in Indoor Recreation Centers
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Men's Locker/Shower - 98% |
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Women's Locker/Shower - 96% |
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Multipurpose Room(s) - 96% |
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Gymnasium(s) - 73% |
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Cardiovascular Equipment Area - 71% |
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Aerobics/Dance Area - 65% |
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Indoor Lap/Competitive Pool - 58% |
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Free-Weight Equipment Area - 52% |
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Child-Care Facilities - 52% |
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Racquetball/Handball Area - 50% |
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Whirlpool(s) - 44% |
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Concession Stand - 40% |
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Indoor Track - 37% |
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Sauna - 35% |
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Indoor Leisure Pool - 31% |
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Family Locker Rooms - 25% |
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Steam Rooms - 25% |
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Outdoor Lap/Competitive Pool - 15% |
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Indoor Ice Rink - 15% |
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Outdoor Tennis Courts - 12% |
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Climbing Wall - 10% |
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Pro Shop - 10% |
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Indoor Tennis Courts - 6% |
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Squash Courts - 4% |
Source: Schmidt, Sue: "Cities on the Move," Athletic Business, Oct. 1993.
MASTER PLANNING SEQUENCE
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Sponsoring Agency |
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Parks & Recreation Department |
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Master Plan |
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Parks & Recreation Department |
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Other agencies offering recreation services |
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Population growth and distribution |
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Age, ethnicity, income, education, gender and occupation |
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Random citizen demand for recreation services |
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Nonrandom citizen demand for recreational services |
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Program participation data |
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Standards for park & recreation agencies |
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Specific agency action plan |
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Time frame for agency action plan |
7. Cost Analysis & Financial Strategies
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Park and Recreation Department budget history |
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Budget comparisons with other similar departments in other cities |
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Estimated costs for Master Plan recommendations |
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Actions of highest priority |
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Other recommendations |
NRPA Open Space Standards and Guidelines
A task force of the National Recreation and Park
Association developed a model through which communities or other park and
recreation agencies could measure their own needs for recreation open space or
developed facilities. It is a supply-demand method based on the following
concepts:
Participant rate (PR): The percentage of a given population that will
participate in a specific activity.
Participation days (PD): The average number of times each individual user
will participate in a recreation activity during a year.
Demand (D): The number of people who can reasonably be expected to attend
or participate in a particular recreation activity during
a year.
Design day (DD): An average weekend day during a peak season of use for a
particular activity.
Design capacity (DC): The percentage of participation days that can be
expected to occur in a specific activity on a design day.
Spatial standards (SS): Reasonable capacities of recreation facilities or
areas by spatial unit at any given time.
Turnover rates (TR): The number of times a recreation activity spatial
unit can be used during a single day.
Facility need (FN): The number of spatial units required to accommodate a
particular activity.
Facility Need Formula
__preference x design capacity__ = Facility Need
spatial standard x turnover rate
GENERAL PLANNING PRINCIPLES
| 1. Recreation and park systems should be
established to meet varied community needs and should provide equal recreational
opportunity to all, as far as possible. 2. Planning should reflect the needs and wishes of all citizens and should involve them in systematic assessment processes. 3. Each recreation facility should be centrally located within the area it is intended to serve and should provide safe and convenient access for all residents. |
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4. Each facility should be designed individually to ensure that it is adapted to
the specific needs of the area it will serve. Beauty, functional efficiency,
economy, and safety are important design considerations.
5. Planning decisions must take into account the capability of the recreation
and park agency to operate the facility under consideration.
6. Communities should have a long-range plan for site acquisition with a
regularly updated plan to ensure that properties are acquired while still
available.
7. Similarly, there should be a comprehensive plan for effective maintenance of
all properties, with a schedule for remodeling or rehabilitation of facilities.
8. Plans for acquiring and developing new facilities must be reviewed in terms
of long-term budgetary and staffing factors; it is a mistake to add new
facilities if a department is unable to maintain existing facilities
satisfactorily.
9. Intergovernmental planning with other public agencies is a must, and possible
cooperative projects with governmental and private agencies should be considered
for joint acquisition, construction, and operation of facilities.
10. Recreational facilities should be designed and developed to permit the
fullest possible use by different groups on a year-round and round-the-clock
basis. Planning must consider not only physical sites. and structures but also
program operations.
source: Kraus & Curtis, 2000 p. 128
PROPERTY ACQUISITION FOR FACILITIES DEVELOPMENT
A variety of methods are available to park and recreation agencies for land acquisition. The most common forms of acquisition are listed below.
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purchase; fee simple or also called direct purchase is the most commonly used land acquisition method. |
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condemnation; governments have the "right of eminent domain." Governments may acquire land by forcing owners to sell through a process called condemnation. A court will set a fair market price that the owners must accept. This method obviously has serious image and public relation consequences for the agency. |
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transfer; land may be transferred from one government department to another. Examples are: railroad right-of-ways, utility right-of-ways, flood plains, land surrounding reservoirs, and municipal properties. |
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leasing; long-term leasing can be used for recreation facility development. Usually it is between two government agencies or a government (city) and a private no-profit organization such as a YMCA. |
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gifts; land may be given or left as a bequest (in someone's will) as a gift to a city, county, state, or federal government. |
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dedication by developers (subdividers); this method requires land developers to set-aside a certain percentage of property for recreation and park use or pay a fee of equivalent value in lieu of the property. An example is the Town of Payson Impact Fee. |
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easements; is the purchase of a right to use the land without an outright purchase. It is usually an agreement between the land owner and an agency interested in the land that will allow a specific type of recreational use. Compensation to the land owner may be a yearly payment or some form of reduced tax rate. |
ACCESSIBILITY ISSUES IN DESIGN AND CONSTRUCTION
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The Americans with Disabilities Act guarantees disabled people access to employment, public accommodation, transportation, public services and telecommunications. President George Bush signed the law July 26, 1990. Considered landmark legislation, the ADA provides for the first time comprehensive federal civil rights protection for people with disabilities. However, the legislative concepts incorporated into the law are not without precedent. The prototypes for the ADA are the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which prohibits discrimination based on race, color, sex, religion and national origin in employment, public accommodations and the provision of state and local government services, and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, which prohibits discrimination against disabled people by recipients of federal funds. |
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MAINTENANCE AND OPERATIONS OF FACILITIES
Question: If someone wanted to give your agency a recreation center and all your agency would have to do is maintain it. Who would spend more money? The builder of the facility or the agency that will maintain it? The answer is not obvious, but it will cost much more over the life of the facility to maintain it than to build it.
Once a leisure facility has been built, it's operation will require maintenance.
(1) maintenance, meaning the continuing process of keeping the park, sport field, indoor center, or other facility as clean, safe, attractive, and functional as possible; and
(2) operation, which includes the
assigning of reservations or scheduled group or individual uses of facilities,
monitoring usage rates, enforcing risk-management practices, and other agency
policies with respect to facilities.
Good maintenance will build credibility for a recreational and park agency,
encourage participation, and lengthen the life of a facility and the equipment
in it. Poor maintenance practices will do just the opposite.
Through regular inspections and prompt repair of broken equipment or dangerous
conditions, accidents will be prevented and lawsuits avoided.
Written Maintenance Plans
Routine maintenance operations are facilitated by the use of written
plans that outline all responsibilities for field personnel in simple, clear
terms. These should include the following elements:
1. Maintenance standards - the minimum acceptable level of maintained
condition for an area, facility, or equipment item;
2. Routine maintenance tasks - these include tasks such as cleaning,
lubricating, painting, litter and trash removal, planting, fertilizing,
watering, weeding, and mowing;
3. Procedures for maintaining - concise descriptions of how to do the
tasks in the most effective and efficient manner possible;
4. Frequency - daily, weekly, monthly, biannually, annually, or other
guidelines for when work must be done, including seasonal variations;
5. Materials, supplies, and tools - detailed statement of all materials
and equipment needed to perform tasks.
6. Personnel - minimum number of personnel required to carry out tasks,
with identification of technical skills required and standardized statement of
time needed to carry out tasks.
source: Kraus & Curtis, 2000, p.139.
Developing Work Standards: A System Approach
This is a system that classifies facilities by type and assigns them different levels of maintenance priority. It may also include a second level which designates the maintenance required for "optimum" or "minimum" care. Examples of such a system may be:
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A - highly visible areas with intensive use requires daily care and attention. |
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B - highly visible or moderately visible with moderate usage and requires daily or bi-weekly care. |
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C - moderate to low visibility and moderate to low usage and requires weekly or bi-monthly care. |
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D - low visibility and low usage and requires monthly or semi-monthly care. |
Strategic Maintenance Planning
The goal of maintenance is to keep equipment, areas, and facilities in optimum (like new) condition.
Copyright
2001 Northern Arizona University, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
