Basin Recreation is Updating its Strategic Plan

The long-range strategic planning of the Snyderville Basin Special Recreation District (“Basin Recreation” or the “District”) is a fluid, progressive process whereby Basin Recreation assesses needs and priorities, evaluates its level of service (“LOS”) standards and considers policy changes. The master planning process occurs approximately every five years. The last Strategic Action Plan, completed in 2013, identified top priority projects for Basin Recreation, several of which the District has completed, including: added fitness facilities, improvements to the current ice arena, an outdoor lap pool/hot tub, indoor multipurpose courts, pickleball and tennis courts, and dog park/off leash areas.

The current master planning cycle began last spring with a Community Survey conducted by Y2Analytics, a Salt Lake City-based market research and data analytics group. The Survey was administered to a sample group of registered voters, weighted using US Census Data to ensure that the sample was representative of the region. In addition, the Survey was made available to the community as a whole. Both results were evaluated to establish current use, as well as public perception of the condition and adequacy of existing facilities and programming. The Survey also gathered information as to the demand for new facilities and programming.

Concurrent with the Community Survey, the District worked with Zions Public Finance, Inc. to update its Needs Assessment Study, which evaluated population growth and how such growth impacts the LOS of existing facilities. The intent of this process is to show current and future shortages by facility type so that the District can plan to meet those shortages.

The third and current stage of the master planning process is the Strategic Action Plan. Led by Landmark Design, this Plan will assess the results of the Survey and Needs Assessment, evaluate proposed facilities based on established criteria, and seek public comment. The Strategic Action Plan will then inform the District’s capital expenditures over the next five to ten years.

The District wants very much to hear from you. To that end, there are several opportunities to provide comment, including the project website, two public scoping meetings on Monday, March 9, 2020 (8-10am at Park City Coffee Roaster and 5-7pm at The Fieldhouse), contacting Melissa O’Brien, Planning and Legal Affairs Manager at melissa@basinrecreation.org or Lisa Benson, Project Manager at Landmark Design at (801) 474-3300. There will be an additional public open house to review the draft plan in May, 2020 (time and location to be announced).

Basin Recreation takes its role as a steward of public money for recreation very seriously. As the recreation provider for a very active community, we seek to balance the needs of the community with the available resources. However, strategic planning is only as good as the results obtained. Basin Recreation is proud of its deliberate growth and excited about the future of recreation in the community.