PHASE 1 - Recreation Needs Assessment - Results and Next Steps

The City of St. Albert recently conducted public engagement on a Recreation Needs Assessment to understand and help prioritize present and future recreation needs of the community.

An online survey was the primary method used to collect input from residents with 1,879 respondents providing information on their current recreation activities as well as sharing their vision for the future of recreation in St. Albert. The City also heard from 34 different community stakeholder groups including sport, recreation and other community organizations, alongside St. Albert school boards, regional municipal partners and Indigenous partners to provide their perspective on the future of recreation in St. Albert.

The feedback received was very important in the prioritization of recreation amenities and the City thanks the community for its valuable input.

RESULTS AND NEXT STEPS

The prioritization of amenities being presented to City Council are listed in the What We Heard Report and in the Recreation Amenity Needs Assessment Prioritization.

Indoor pools were ranked as the highest need through the needs assessment model. Administration’s recommendation to Council is to explore building an aquatics facility in the future as a high-priority need. However, there is still a significant amount of work to do and decisions to make before a future facility is finalized. Ultimately the decision rests with Council.

Planning for new community amenities is a complex, multi-year process that has many stages and decisions to be made. There will continue to be public and stakeholder engagement opportunities throughout the concept planning and design phases.