Seattle Parks and Recreation Annual Report - 2007

Strategic Action Plan

We are in the process of developing a Strategic Action Plan (SAP) that will guide our actions for the next five years. The original impetus for the SAP was to address the sunset of the Pro Parks Levy - which ends in December 2008. However, Mayor Greg Nickels' budget for 2008, which City Council approved, closed the potential funding gap for Levy-funded programs such as environmental stewardship, maintenance, and recreation by funding these items directly from the General Fund. (See Mayor's Message for more budget details.)

The plan will help us identify what we can improve, what we do well, what threats face parks and recreation today, what opportunities we should focus on, and what the ideal vision is for Seattle Parks and Recreation. An important and integral part of this process is public input. In late November and early December, Parks held 35 public meetings throughout the city. More than 600 citizens attended. An online survey garnered 1,820 responses and we received more than 100 comment cards. More than 850 employees also gave their input into the plan.

Seattle Parks and Recreation, with the help of consultant Berk & Associates, is developing a first draft of the plan based on comments received from the community and employees. We will take our first draft of the plan to City Council in March and to the community through a second round of public meetings in late March and early April.

A second draft of the plan will be prepared by May - based on feedback from the second round of public involvement - and our target is to submit the final plan to the Mayor in June.
If you haven't already attended one of the public meetings, please consider joining us for one this spring. For more information about the plan, please visit www.seattle.gov/parks/Publications/ParksActionPlan.htm.

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