Highlights From the Parks Department's Survey of Roseville Citizens

A new survey commissioned by the Parks and Recreation Department provides a wealth of data about how Roseville citizens use, assess, and prioritize the city’s parks.

The statistically random survey of 760 Roseville residents, conducted by Leisure Vision, a Kansas City-based research firm, was presented to the city council this week in a conference call with Leisure president Ron Vine.

Here are some of the more interesting findings:

• Eighty-nine percent of Roseville residents had visited a city park in the last 12 months. In contrast, communities nation-wide average 72 percent park attendance.

• More than 80 percent of households polled had visited Central Park alone. “That’s an astoundingly high percentage for any park,” Vine said. Thirty-two percent said they had visited Lexington Park and 21 percent for Acorn Park.

• Walking and biking trails were by far the most popular facility. Eighty-two percent of households have used walking and biking trails and almost 60 percent of respondents said that walking and biking trails were the Roseville park feature they used the most.

• The maintenance of the current system is the highest priority for most Roseville residents. Fifty-five percent of households said that maintaining existing parks and trails is one of the top three park services they most support being funded with tax dollars. “This is the least controversial thing and the most important to people,” Vine said.

• Sixty-three percent of Roseville households would use an indoor walking and jogging track if the city built one in a new community center. “If you were to build a community center and didn’t have a walking and jogging track that would be a very, very big issue,” Vine said.

•  Thirty-nine percent of households would vote in favor of a tax increase for the improvements they prefer. Thirty percent said they might vote in favor of a tax increase, 17 percent said they would vote against one and 14 percent said they were not sure.

• About 60 percent of Roseville residents said they would be willing to pay an additional $3 a month in taxes to increase the parks department’s budget by $3 million a year to pay for the improvement and operating costs of the city’s walking, biking and nature trails.