While we'd love to learn as much about your ideas for the future of parks, we recognize some of you have less time than others. How would you prefer to participate and provide your feedback about Parks of the Future?
I'd like to fill out the complete survey (approx 10 minutes).
How often does your household use parks, recreation facilities, or programs in a year?
Regularly (9 or more times a year)
What do you feel are the top three functions provided by Montgomery Parks and the Montgomery County Recreation?
Natural areas support a variety of ecological communities, and they form the backbone of our park system. Montgomery Parks recognizes these areas provide respite for park patrons and ecological benefits. The stewardship of these resources is a key component of a successful park system.
Montgomery Parks is dedicated to preserving and interpreting cultural resources for current and future generations including historic buildings, archaeological sites, and other culturally significant places.
Montgomery Parks offers hundreds of athletic fields used for a wide variety of sports such as baseball, soccer, cricket and more. There are also basketball and tennis courts, ice skating rinks, an indoor sports pavilion among other amenities promoting sports in our parks.
How would you rate the agency's parks, facilities and services in meeting the communities needs?
Parks - 3 Good
Recreational facilities - 3 Good
Recreational programs - 1 Poor
Are there any segments of the community that need to be better served by Montgomery Parks and Montgomery County Recreation? If so, who are they and how can they be better served?
The elderly and infirm are not well-served by Montgomery Parks due largely to lack of walkable/ADA accessibility from street-side into many Parks and broken down Trails within Parks - especially Local and suburban parks which do not have accessible access to parkland from parking lots or adjacent streets and sidewalks. However, Montgomery County Recreation does serve elderly and infirm better within County Recreation Centers, most of which have accessible entrances from parking lots, but NOT on Parkland which entirely lacks or has inadequate ADA accessible walkways and pedestrian assisted movement points of access in many Parks.
What do you believe are the three most important issues / challenges facing Montgomery Parks and Montgomery County Recreation in the next five years?
1. How to cope with and provide access and walkable pathways (trails) into and around Parks due to non-compliance with ADA guidelines and lack of maintenance and repair to existing Park trails.
2. How to offer sports activities to all age-groups outdoors in Parks - as most sports are aimed at/used by young adults and children only.
3. How to preserve the 'green-space' within existing suburban Parks in the face of excessive County Government redevelopments going up around/in Parks.
Why did you choose these top three functions?
1. While I favor improved mass transit (and even the Purple Line - which is only a light rail Tram that is not quite "MASS" transit compared to METRO or MARC heavy rail trains, I find the County's over-emphasis and spending of excessive funds to build and operate the Purple Line has emerged as 'dysfunctional' and is taking away from resources essential to upgrade and maintain our Parks and Rec Centers. Many promises made about public benefits to Parks and Recreation from private corporate redevelopments turn out to be 'Bait-and-Switch' politics that deny the essence of these public resources by callously "privatizing" them.
What amenities, programs or experiences are missing that would better support your recreation needs that we should be planning for in the future?
I am not looking for "amenities", as they are by definition improvements made by private companies engaged in housing/other redevelopment usually on private property and where private property enters public roadways, sidewalks, etc. I seek outright PUBLIC BENEFITS improvement and extension to more areas of Montgomery County - especially where residential and working populations are already dense, rather than trying to 'Densify' suburban areas into urban ones by Land Use rezoning 'tricks', without consulting current resident or working people in these locations by means of a clear-cut VOTE on formal referendums. We need community decision-making (not mere community "inputs" to Planners (with Ulterior Agendas who use "Bait-and-Switch" tactics to obtain acquiesence) in order to determine real-world Public Benefits to Parks and Recreation infrastructure, programs, and opportunities to experience nature safely and healthily.
How would you describe your household? Please check ALL that apply.
At least one child under age 18 lives here
Someone age 55 and over lives here
Someone with a disability lives here
Single-family detached house or townhouse / duplex
Use bus or rail public transit for non-work related trips
Lived in current house 15 or more years
Some other race
Please provide your zip code here to help us to determine where facilities and services are needed.
20910
Do you have any additional comments or suggestions to help Montgomery Parks and Montgomery County Recreation staff plan for the County's future parks, recreational facilities or programs?
Montgomery Parks and Recreation Department leadership needs to distant itself from current appointed heads of M-NCPPC Planning Board and Planning Department which does not view local suburban County Parks as "public assets" that must be preserved and enhanced without giving away parkland to private developers for 'redevelopment' intended to increase population density impacting the quality and availability of currently in-high-demand Parks and Recreation Centers adversely. Parks/Recreation field staff understand these issues acutely, but their current appointed leadership is unwilling to stand up for communities.
Open Town Hall is not a certified voting system or ballot box. As with any public comment process, participation in Open Town Hall is voluntary. The responses in this record are not necessarily representative of the whole population, nor do they reflect the opinions of any government agency or elected officials.
Translate
While we'd love to learn as much about your ideas for the future of parks, we recognize some of you have less time than others. How would you prefer to participate and provide your feedback about Parks of the Future?
How often does your household use parks, recreation facilities, or programs in a year?
What do you feel are the top three functions provided by Montgomery Parks and the Montgomery County Recreation?
Natural areas support a variety of ecological communities, and they form the backbone of our park system. Montgomery Parks recognizes these areas provide respite for park patrons and ecological benefits. The stewardship of these resources is a key component of a successful park system.
Montgomery Parks is dedicated to preserving and interpreting cultural resources for current and future generations including historic buildings, archaeological sites, and other culturally significant places.
Montgomery Parks offers hundreds of athletic fields used for a wide variety of sports such as baseball, soccer, cricket and more. There are also basketball and tennis courts, ice skating rinks, an indoor sports pavilion among other amenities promoting sports in our parks.
How would you rate the agency's parks, facilities and services in meeting the communities needs?
Are there any segments of the community that need to be better served by Montgomery Parks and Montgomery County Recreation? If so, who are they and how can they be better served?
The elderly and infirm are not well-served by Montgomery Parks due largely to lack of walkable/ADA accessibility from street-side into many Parks and broken down Trails within Parks - especially Local and suburban parks which do not have accessible access to parkland from parking lots or adjacent streets and sidewalks. However, Montgomery County Recreation does serve elderly and infirm better within County Recreation Centers, most of which have accessible entrances from parking lots, but NOT on Parkland which entirely lacks or has inadequate ADA accessible walkways and pedestrian assisted movement points of access in many Parks.
What do you believe are the three most important issues / challenges facing Montgomery Parks and Montgomery County Recreation in the next five years?
1. How to cope with and provide access and walkable pathways (trails) into and around Parks due to non-compliance with ADA guidelines and lack of maintenance and repair to existing Park trails.
2. How to offer sports activities to all age-groups outdoors in Parks - as most sports are aimed at/used by young adults and children only.
3. How to preserve the 'green-space' within existing suburban Parks in the face of excessive County Government redevelopments going up around/in Parks.
Why did you choose these top three functions?
1. While I favor improved mass transit (and even the Purple Line - which is only a light rail Tram that is not quite "MASS" transit compared to METRO or MARC heavy rail trains, I find the County's over-emphasis and spending of excessive funds to build and operate the Purple Line has emerged as 'dysfunctional' and is taking away from resources essential to upgrade and maintain our Parks and Rec Centers. Many promises made about public benefits to Parks and Recreation from private corporate redevelopments turn out to be 'Bait-and-Switch' politics that deny the essence of these public resources by callously "privatizing" them.
What amenities, programs or experiences are missing that would better support your recreation needs that we should be planning for in the future?
I am not looking for "amenities", as they are by definition improvements made by private companies engaged in housing/other redevelopment usually on private property and where private property enters public roadways, sidewalks, etc. I seek outright PUBLIC BENEFITS improvement and extension to more areas of Montgomery County - especially where residential and working populations are already dense, rather than trying to 'Densify' suburban areas into urban ones by Land Use rezoning 'tricks', without consulting current resident or working people in these locations by means of a clear-cut VOTE on formal referendums. We need community decision-making (not mere community "inputs" to Planners (with Ulterior Agendas who use "Bait-and-Switch" tactics to obtain acquiesence) in order to determine real-world Public Benefits to Parks and Recreation infrastructure, programs, and opportunities to experience nature safely and healthily.
How would you describe your household? Please check ALL that apply.
Please provide your zip code here to help us to determine where facilities and services are needed.
20910Do you have any additional comments or suggestions to help Montgomery Parks and Montgomery County Recreation staff plan for the County's future parks, recreational facilities or programs?
Montgomery Parks and Recreation Department leadership needs to distant itself from current appointed heads of M-NCPPC Planning Board and Planning Department which does not view local suburban County Parks as "public assets" that must be preserved and enhanced without giving away parkland to private developers for 'redevelopment' intended to increase population density impacting the quality and availability of currently in-high-demand Parks and Recreation Centers adversely. Parks/Recreation field staff understand these issues acutely, but their current appointed leadership is unwilling to stand up for communities.