Parks, Trails & Recreation Master Plan

TRENDS SUMMARY This chapter summarizes important past and projected demographic and recreation trends that will have a major impact on Shakopee as it plans for its future. The demographic analysis data shows that the City is growing rapidly and is projected to continue to expand over the next 20+ years. Changes in age and race demographics are expected to continue shifting, increasing in diversity as well as growing the 55+ population. It is recommended that the City continues to grow its senior program offerings to more adequately serve the increasing population in that age group. It is also recommended that the Shakopee Parks and Recreation departments continue their ongoing efforts towards more inclusive planning and outreach techniques to communicate with growing numbers of recent immigrants and English as a second language park users. Recreation trends were also analyzed in order to develop an understanding of how the City, parks, and recreation are changing with time. National Recreation Trends reveal that the most popular sports and recreation activities include individual activities such as fitness walking and road cycling as well as team sports such as squash, lacrosse, and rugby. Comparatively the regional trends, which have implications locally in Shakopee, show similar patterns. Field sports are increasing in popularity in the younger age groups, with a growing interest in soccer and lacrosse. Trail usage has seen a rapid increase and is currently identified by the Metropolitan Council as the top activity occurring in regional parks. Within Shakopee’s aging population, pickleball is becoming increasingly popular and court space should continue to be monitored to ensure it is meeting the need. Among older park users, there are additional needs for lower impact activities such as bocce and using lower impact/ less challenging trails. Changing climate trends have been, and will continue to impact Shakopee and the park system. Storms are likely to increase in intensity with storm damage becoming more frequent and severe, periods of drought will last longer, and localized flooding within parks is more frequent and severe. These stressors will require a

need for the provision of key services throughout the seasons that can rapidly respond to storm damage, periods of drought, and insects and diseases that negatively impact the park system’s vegetation and green infrastructure. Finally, changing trends in technology have provided the Parks division with additional techniques to manage and maintain the existing park system. Technology can be implemented as an administrative tool to maximize productivity, reduce workloads, and increase revenue. It can also be utilized for maintenance management by providing software that enables staff to track costs, create schedules, and produce work orders. Aside from administrative purposes, technology can be used to provide advertisement opportunities that promote events and activities targeting past and future users. As an engagement tool, technology is changing how parks engage their users and promote interaction with nature. Therefore, it is recommended that as technology continues to advance so too should the implementation of technology within the park system both as a tool for administration and engagement purposes to connect with changing demographics that have been difficult to reach with traditional engagement techniques.

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Needs Assessment

SHAKOPEE PARKS, TRAILS, AND RECREATION MASTER PLAN | NEEDS ASSESSMENT 56