7.1 PRSR 11-09-2022 - Laserfiche WebLink

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4 ATHLETIC FIELDS STUDY City of Elk River, Minnesota DRAFT INTRODUCTION/STUDY PURPOSE The City of Elk River is recognized for its progressive park system, providing a wide range of passive and active recreation experiences for residents and visitors alike. Within the City’s parks, Elk River boasts a number of exceptional athletic facilities that have long supported the community and hosted many of the community’s youth as they participated in sports. These are the facilities that have served as the backdrop for many residents’ life lessons and lifelong memories. Elk River has a commitment to ensuring that the people who live and visit the city have access to safe, quality fi elds. As a city “Powered by Nature” and focused on being a great place to live, athletic facilities are one of the important elements of the community. The City also knows that the whole community benefi ts when the youth have the positive infl uences associated with playing sports: exercise, teamwork, dedication, confi dence, friends, and fun. THIS STUDY The City of Elk River is in the process of updating and addressing many of the athletics and park needs in the community. The past few years have seen signifi cant investment in the ice arena, fi eld house, and Lion John Wiecht Park softball fi elds. The High School has recently upgraded many of their facilities as well. At the same time, many of the fi eld sports are at facilities that were built 20-30 years ago or longer, when population was much smaller and needs were diff erent. This study considers the current context of fi eld sports in Elk River and the future trends aff ecting athletics and population to provide an approach to maintaining and expanding facilities through 2035. This study’s process drew from three main sources: • The City of Elk River’s fi rst- hand experiences, policies, and fi eld use data • Surveys with user groups • Consultant review of data, demographic projections, level of service standards, facility evaluations, and current trends in athletic facilities YOUTH SPORTS The City’s youth programs are strong, with Elk River Youth Athletics (ERYA) leading the off erings in the community. ERYA provides a range of competition levels across the various age ranges. The sports off ered include: • Baseball • Softball • Football (Flag and Tackle) • Lacrosse Elk River families that participate in Soccer are typically doing so through a regional club such as Boreal FC that serves players across the northern suburbs. Following an initial decline after the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, participation numbers have rebounded well and are anticipated to continue to strengthen. SCHOOL SPORTS Outdoor athletics through the schools occur at the high school level. Elk River High School underwent extensive renovations in 2021 to improve the conditions at the school. Additionally, Spectrum School is a private middle and high school that off ers football, soccer, softball, baseball, and track/fi eld on its own fi elds. Elk River High School has a number of dedicated fi eld spaces with priority in the afternoons after school lets out. While some youth athletic programming occurs on these fi elds, they understandably have second priority after school needs, such as games and practices. Games especially are more likely to run later into the evening and bump youth sports. ADULT Adult softball does continue to utilize the Dave Anderson Athletic Complex. As participation numbers have declined signifi cantly, the future of adult slow pitch softball in the community is in question. The number of teams and the number of nights has fallen off and there have been discussions of no longer off ering adult rec slow pitch softball. There are legion and VFW summer baseball teams in town. These teams typically utilize Hale’s Field, which is a school district facility. TOURNAMENTS/TRAINING From time to time, the facilities are also utilized by outside groups and schools, whether that is for tournaments, camps, training, or other events. These are typically scheduled around other ERYA programming that has priority.