MOUNTAIN VIEW COUNTY - County council has been given an update on the Mountain View Regional Parks, Recreation and Culture Master Plan process now underway.
Councillors also provided comments to a number of related questions.
The review and input came during the recent regularly scheduled council meeting, with officials from Expedition Management Consulting Ltd. appearing as a delegation.
The master plan is being jointly developed by the towns of Olds, Didsbury, Carstairs, Sundre, the Village of Cremona, and Mountain View County, in conjunction with Expedition.
Company representative Justin Rousseau said the regional parks, recreation and culture master plan will provide guidance to the municipal partners in making decisions that best meet the needs of the community as a whole.
“This will be your playbook moving forward on all things recreational, parks and culture. We really want the plan to be useful and be that playbook going forward,” said Rousseau.
The master planning process has included online surveys, which opened on March 15 and closed on April 30.
The surveys were for residents, youth and stakeholder organizations.
Respondents were asked a number of questions, including: “What, if any, new or improved indoor facilities are most needed to meet the needs of residents in your community?”
Respondents were asked to choose three of a number of options, including aquatic facilities, arenas and field houses.
Respondents were asked to rate their level of satisfaction with indoor facilities in their communities.
They were also asked: “What, if any, new or improved indoor programs are most needed to meet the needs of residents in your community?”
Again respondents were asked to choose three options, including aquatic programs, cultural programs and educational/skill-building programs, and to rate their level of satisfaction with existing indoor programs.
“We’ve spoken with a ton of folks so far in each of the municipalities throughout the region,” said Rousseau.
Engagement sessions with stakeholders have also been ongoing, he said.
Although the survey results have not yet been released, more than 900 responses were given to the resident survey and more than 90 to each of the other two surveys, council heard.
Olds residents provided about 37 per cent of the total number of responses, followed by 20 per cent from Didsbury, and Mountain View County at 15 per cent.
With the surveys now completed, the next step (Phase 3) will be the analyzing the results, including utilization and capacity analysis, trends and benchmarking analysis, parks, recreation and culture inventory, and strategic partnership analysis.
Phase 4 will see a draft master plan prepared. That should be completed by October 2021, with the public again being provided a chance for input.
The final master plan to follow in the fall. Decision making responsibilities for the plan rest with the partner municipal councils.
During the delegation presentation, councillors were asked for input on current and future recreation, parks and culture in the community.
Coun. Greg Harris asked if the survey results will include a breakdown on where respondents reside. Rousseau said yes.
Coun. Peggy Johnson asked if the plan will take into consideration the culture and recreation programming that happens in community halls in the county. He said yes.
“That would be part of the overall program analysis,” he said.
Councillors were asked to provide input on a number of questions, including: “How important is recreation, parks and culture to your municipality”
Reeve Bruce Beattie said, “It think it is obviously pretty important considering we contribute a significant amount of revenue towards recreation and culture.”
Councillors Al Kemmere and Duncan Milne said they agreed with Beattie’s comment.
A second question asked: “What are you future aspirations for recreation, parks and culture service provision? What will success look like in five years? Ten years?”
Coun. Angela Aalbers said, “Future aspirations for Mountain View County would be to have available the recreational services within proximity that are financially supportive and sustainable.”
Coun. Johnson said, “I would hope that in the next five to 10 years we would see better utilization of the existing facilities that we’ve already got.”
Coun. Kemmere said he agreed with Johnson’s comment.
“We don’t just throw away what we’ve got,” said Kemmere. “We’ve got some tremendous core infrastructure in the towns that can probably be utilized for quite a few more years. We’ve got some good concrete structure buildings that are still sound. Let’s not just talk about new but let’s maintain the old.”
Input into the master plan process can still be provided through email at [email protected] or by calling 1-780-267-8677.
