Draft Recreation Policy Plan

Purpose:

A subset of the Park System Plan (under development) are the recreational components which is entitled within this case; Recreation Policy Plan—as it will also define the policy and theory for recreational programming.  This policy development corresponds to City Council's adopted Strategic Plan Strategy to "Connect the community both physically and socially to destinations, services, and activities." and more specifically, the Action item "Update the Recreation Programming Work Plan—Deliver a diversity of programs that finds a balance of revenue and access."


Background:

Formalizing recreation programming goes back approximately one half decade ago as part of the city's [then] strategic plan goal of 'creating a diverse and robust system of recreation services.'  One significant step in that process was to inventory recreation opportunities available within a 15 minute drive from Ramsey.  That 2015 analysis (of 134 categories) found that there was a void in Ramsey for recreational opportunity with many different offerings unavailable from neither the private or public sector.

The various attachments following the adopted Strategic Plan (below) track the above mentioned planning analysis and survey of residents' desire for recreation and enrichment programming. Attachments 2 and 3 are related to the 2018 Citizen Survey and include valuable insights in to residents view of the park system.

In terms of addressing the strategic plan action item to Update the Recreation Programming Work Plan—Deliver a diversity of programs that finds a balance of revenue and access, this case and plan discussion by the Commission continues this endeavor.

 

Recreation Specialist Abby Proulx will highlight this first draft plan at the meeting.  Staff will be requesting detailed feedback on the first portions of the draft plan (pages 1 - 6), and any high level comment and input on the later rough draft potions (pages 7 - 24).  (The various paragraphs that are 'blacked out' are staff's place-holder notes and are obscured so as to not confuse reviewers of these rough draft portions) 

The plan when approved by the Commission (projected for January 2020), would advance for Council consideration thereafter, or available leading up to City Council's strategic planning in early Winter of 2020.

This topic does not not authorize funding per se, however the resultant Recreation Program Policy may yield a modest increase in the revenue side of recreation and enrichment programming for 2020.
 

Staff requests feedback on the draft plan's content (pages 1 - 6) and any other input Commissioners may have.

Consensus input on Draft Recreation Policy Plan.