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Parks and Recreation of the Future: Voice Your Vision

Create parks and recreation of the future. Take this survey!

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336 registered responses


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?

Response Percent Response Count
I'd like to fill out the complete survey (approx 10 minutes). 89.9% 302
I'd just like to provide my general comments about Parks of the Future. 10.1% 34

How often does your household use parks, recreation facilities, or programs in a year?

Response Percent Response Count
Rarely (1 to 3 times a year) 3.0% 9
Occasionally (4 to 8 times a year) 7.6% 23
Regularly (9 or more times a year) 89.4% 271

What do you feel are the top three functions provided by Montgomery Parks and the Montgomery County Recreation?

Average priorities over 336 responses

  1. 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.

    Preservation of natural resources

  2. Montgomery Parks offers many opportunities to promote fitness and health within its 418 parks, including paved and natural surface trails, fitness equipment, amenities to exercise such as ice skating rinks, tennis centers and numerous athletic fields. 

    Fitness and health

  3. 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.

    Preservation of cultural / historic resources

  4. Parks are an ideal location for social gatherings with families, friends and neighbors. Montgomery Parks has many amenities to enhance such gatherings including camp grounds, picnic shelters, park activity buildings and play grounds. 

    Social gathering

  5. 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. 

    Sports

  6. Hundreds of events and festivals take place in Montgomery Parks every year including nature festivals, races, musical events and seasonal celebrations. 

    Events

How would you rate the agency's parks, facilities and services in meeting the communities needs?

Parks
Response Percent Response Count
1 Poor 1.7% 5
2 Fair 8.6% 26
3 Good 45.4% 137
4 Excellent 36.4% 110
5 7.0% 21
Recreational facilities
Response Percent Response Count
1 Poor 2.3% 7
2 Fair 14.6% 44
3 Good 47.4% 143
4 Excellent 27.8% 84
5 4.0% 12
Recreational programs
Response Percent Response Count
1 Poor 1.3% 4
2 Fair 16.2% 49
3 Good 44.0% 133
4 Excellent 24.2% 73
5 7.3% 22

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?

Answered
201
Skipped
135

What do you believe are the three most important issues / challenges facing Montgomery Parks and Montgomery County Recreation in the next five years?

Answered
263
Skipped
73

Why did you choose these top three functions?

Answered
235
Skipped
101

What amenities, programs or experiences are missing that would better support your recreation needs that we should be planning for in the future?

Answered
250
Skipped
86

How would you describe your household? Please check ALL that apply.

Response Percent Response Count
At least one child under age 18 lives here 34.4% 104
Someone age 55 and over lives here 58.3% 176
No children under 18 and no one age 55+ lives here 11.6% 35
Someone with a disability lives here 9.3% 28
Single-family detached house or townhouse / duplex 86.1% 260
Multi-family low- or high-rise building 7.0% 21
Use bus or rail public transit for non-work related trips 34.4% 104
Lived in current house for less than two years 10.6% 32
Lived in current house 15 or more years 54.0% 163
Hispanic or Latino ancestry 6.3% 19
White 84.4% 255
African American or Black 3.6% 11
Asian, Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander 5.6% 17
Some other race 1.3% 4

Please provide your zip code here to help us to determine where facilities and services are needed.

Answered
301
Skipped
35

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?

Answered
240
Skipped
96
Name not shown inside Silver Spring
April 5, 2017, 11:46 AM
  • 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?

    1. Montgomery Parks offers many opportunities to promote fitness and health within its 418 parks, including paved and natural surface trails, fitness equipment, amenities to exercise such as ice skating rinks, tennis centers and numerous athletic fields. 

      Fitness and health

    2. Parks are an ideal location for social gatherings with families, friends and neighbors. Montgomery Parks has many amenities to enhance such gatherings including camp grounds, picnic shelters, park activity buildings and play grounds. 

      Social gathering

    3. 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. 

      Sports
  • 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 - 2 Fair
  • 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 Coffield Center activities seems to cater mostly to seniors and not enough activities are available for young families and young couples ages 25-40. We need early morning (before 8a.m. fitness classes (yoga, pilates, spin, etc) and weekend youth activities for K-2.

  • What do you believe are the three most important issues / challenges facing Montgomery Parks and Montgomery County Recreation in the next five years?

    Having useable spaces that can be reserved for celebrations, birthday parties etc. Right now key locations fill up months in advance.

  • Why did you choose these top three functions?

    They are important to me and my family.

  • What amenities, programs or experiences are missing that would better support your recreation needs that we should be planning for in the future?

    More picnic pavilions and rooms that can be reserved for events. More young kid friendly activities and amentities like the Wheaton Regional Park and Glen Echo Park have. Fitness center hours and classes that cater to young working professionals are also needed.

  • How would you describe your household? Please check ALL that apply.
    • At least one child under age 18 lives here
    • Single-family detached house or townhouse / duplex
    • Use bus or rail public transit for non-work related trips
    • White
  • Please provide your zip code here to help us to determine where facilities and services are needed.
    20910
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.

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Even though your response will be shared with staff, it won’t be shown on this public website so other community members won’t have the opportunity to see it.

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What are my options to participate?

Open Town Hall has two participation channels:

  • The Registered Channel: Sign in before or just after you submit your response. Either way, Community Feedback will show your response on this website.
  • The Unregistered Channel: Don't sign in and remain anonymous. Community Feedback will just share your response with Montgomery County Parks staff.

Note: The first time you sign in, you'll need to register (establish an account on Open Town Hall). Registration is free.

Why do I need to sign in to show my response on this website?

The Montgomery County Department of Parks has contracted with Community Feedback to monitor responses shown on this website.

  • To prevent any single user from dominating the forum, the Montgomery County Department of Parks restricts the number of responses any one user can post on selected topics. Registration helps Community Feedback enforce this restriction.
  • Users, staff and government leaders often want to know the neighborhood from which a response is posted. Community Feedback uses registration to show the neighborhood next to each response (not the address).
  • If a user posts a response that does not meet the Montgomery County Department of Parks guidelines for civility, Community Feedback uses the user's email address to invite the user to resolve the issue.
I'm concerned about privacy. Who will get my contact information and what will they use it for?

Community Feedback will get your contact information. The company is under contract with the Montgomery County Department of Parks to hold it in strict confidence per their privacy policy.

What other benefits do I get from signing in?
  • Since you'll see your own response on Open Town Hall, you'll be able to confirm that your response was posted as you intended.
  • You'll be able to change and/or delete your response as long as the topic is open.
I'm still very concerned about privacy. Is there a way for me to submit a response without registering?

Yes. Sign out, then set your privacy preference to be "No - just show it without my name to staff". You won't need to register.

What prevents an unregistered user from submitting multiple anonymous responses?

While no authentication procedure can perfectly detect every fraudulent registration, Community Feedback is able to secure the registered channel against systematic fraud: cases where users submit enough statements with fraudulent registrations to sway the overall interpretation of the feedback.

Community Feedback is unable to secure the unregistered channel against systematic fraud, because unregistered users are anonymous.

Neither the registered nor the unregistered channel represent a certified voting system or ballot box - and that caveat is footnoted on every page of feedback. Instead, both are additional channels for feedback to government.

Why are there two participation channels?

Users can participate on the registered channel (by signing in) or on the unregistered channel (by remaining anonymous). The Montgomery County Department of Parks offers both channels in order to broaden participation and maximize decision makers' insights.

The registered channel enables users to assure decision makers that their feedback comes from a real person in a specific neighborhood. It also enables users to participate in a public discussion on the website, as well as manage their own response after posting it.

The unregistered channel is for users who want to provide quick feedback without registering, and/or whose privacy concerns would prevent them from participating if required to register. Because many users with valuable insights will only share them anonymously, this channel gives decision makers the option to consider those insights in their deliberations.

What is OpenGov?

OpenGov is a non-partisan company whose mission is to broaden civic engagement and build public trust in government. The Montgomery County Department of Parks has contracted with OpenGov to administer Open Town Hall.

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