The city is looking for St. Albert residents to weigh in on what the future of recreation looks like to them.
Open until March 21, a new recreation needs assessment survey will help the city gauge community recreation habits to prioritize new opportunities. In particular, the city will use the feedback to help plan a recreation centre in the west area, now known as the Cherot neighbourhood.
Residents can access the survey online at https://conversation.stalbert.ca/activate. In addition to filling out the survey, participants can post their ideas on virtual Post-it notes, recreating the feel of project boards in an in-person open house.
Manda Wilde, parks development project manager for the city, said some information her department is hoping to glean from the survey includes, “how residents are recreating and being active now, and how they see that changing into the future.”
The city received feedback in 2017 because of two plebiscites: one for additional aquatic space, which received majority approval, and another for a sixth sheet of ice for Servus Place, which was narrowly voted down. Wilde said the new survey will allow for an updated understanding of recreation needs in the present.
After the city gets a better picture of community needs, Wilde said her department will look to bring a suite of options to prioritize for future investment before council.
In addition to resident feedback through the survey, Wilde said other factors the city is considering in its planning process include looking at “hard data,” for example ice-surface use, and fill rates for city-offered programming.
Wilde said the city is also reaching out to sport and recreation organizations, and organizations that represent equity-seeking populations, as well as Indigenous partners.
Conversations with community groups over the years will also be taken into account, Wilde said, as will regional collaboration.
St. Albert has two pre-existing intermunicipal collaboration frameworks (ICFs) with Edmonton and Morinville. These agreements bring both parties to the table to discuss collaboration and co-delivery of recreation services. Wilde said the city will also begin conversations with Sturgeon County.
“We’re going to be starting conversations around … understanding what trends our partners are seeing and whether there might be opportunities in the future for discussions around collaboration and partnership, and not duplicating services,” Wilde said.
Ultimately, the city wants to hear from as many voices as possible, Wilde said, “Those that use recreation, those that don’t right now — so we can figure out why not … anything to get a really broad understanding of our community as a whole helps.”
The survey is open until March 21.
