The Fairview Parks Survey ended in mid-May and the results have been compiled. We had a participation rate of about 6% (although this sounds small, the City of Calgary had only about 2% for its recent It’s Your Budget feedback.
Some of the highlights and common themes from the feedback included:
- the importance of off-leash and on-leash dog areas in Fairview
- people loved the open spaces for a variety of activities and mature trees for their beauty
- many people recognized that our park spaces are vastly underutilized and do not entice residents to use them
- improved playgrounds, seating/picnic/leisure areas and various landscaping improvements throughout our parks received strong attention
- mixed age and function uses of the park spaces also received a lot of attention
Some points of clarification:
- please note: we did not fully address the off-leash dog issue in this survey as we felt that it was a large enough issue in its own right that it deserved its own special attention in the future
- there still seems to be some confusion about off-leash areas in Fairview: as per bylaws, the only places you are LEGALLY allowed to have your dog off-leash in this community is in Flint Park (north of the playground area) and along the Blackfoot Trail right-of-way. Flavelle Park is NOT an off-leash dog area and the city is not planning on making it such.
- with regard to playground improvements, please keep in mind that we are somewhat limited by budget as to the improvements that can be feasibly made. Therefore, things such as rubberized surfacing (which is extremely expensive), water features (ditto) and fully accessible playgrounds are out of reach.
The results have been forwarded to the City of Calgary Parks Department for consideration and to provide direction on park improvements with an immediate 2012-13 focus on Flavelle Park
The results can be viewed at:
Parks Survey Full Summary