PEABODY — The city is updating its Recreation and Open Space Plan (ROSP) and seeking the public’s input, asking residents to participate in an online survey available on its Recreation, Parks and Forestry website.
The goal of the survey is to help identify opportunities for significant, long-term preservation and improvements that provide the greatest benefit to the people who live, work and play in Peabody.
The plan, once drafted, will guide the city in maintaining, protecting and improving its open spaces, parks and recreation resources by establishing priorities for the next five years. It will also render the city eligible to apply for open-space grants and funding from the state.
The plan was last updated in 2015.
The survey, which is available in English, Spanish, and Portuguese, takes about seven to 10 minutes to complete. There are 29 questions ranging from rating the importance of various activities including bicycle and pedestrian amenities at Riverwalk and the Bikeway, historical and cultural resources, indoor and outdoor facilities, nature trails, open space, and conservation land and wildlife.
The survey also asks respondents to rank activities that are important to them in terms of quality of life in both their neighborhoods and the city in general, including creating attractive neighborhood spaces, offering activities for adults and children, preserving environmentally-sensitive areas, protecting open space from development and providing play areas for youth and building resilience to a changing climate. The survey also asks respondents to rank the services and facilities Peabody currently offers in terms of athletic fields, open space and conservation, wildlife habitats, parks, recreational programs and outdoor education programs.
Several questions ask respondents to choose one activity over another, such as “would you rather have the city develop more smaller parks used by the neighbors and community or a few larger parks that are used by all city residents,” and “should the city begin developing vacant and undeveloped parklands or repair and maintain existing parks and recreation areas?”
Questions also ask respondents to indicate which activities they currently participate in (specific sports, fishing or boating, hiking, jogging, walking, playgrounds and Frisbee to name a few), which facilities and conservation areas they use on a regular basis and which facilities they visit or use the most, which activities they engage in at city parks, their means of transportation and length of commute.
Respondents are also asked to state the level of importance of specific recreational facilities, including dog parks, fields, indoor and outdoor skating rinks, bike paths, splash parks, a new recreation center, outdoor and indoor swimming pools, pickleball courts, and basketball and tennis courts.
The survey breaks down results by the number of years the respondent has lived in the city and also by ward, age, the number of children in the household, gender, ethnicity and race. All responses are anonymous.
To sign up to take the survey, visit www.peabodyma.myrec.com and click on general info, then news. For questions about the survey, send an email to [email protected].