Parks Standards

CLICK HERE TO READ THE COMPLETE PARKS STANDARDS MANUAL

The City of St. Pete Beach Parks Division is under the direction of the Public Services Department; previously under the Leisure Services Department.  The Division has two, two-man crews that do general maintenance, empty trash receptacles, clean curb, court and sidewalks, apply herbicide when needed, are charge with the responsibility of fire ant control, trim hedges, shrubs and bushes, install and maintain flowerbeds, clean beaches when called for, maintain shelters, install and maintain sprinkler systems, inspect and maintain parks equipment and playgrounds, install and maintain appropriate ground coverings and other duties as assigned.
Most mowing, highway medians, tree trimming, sidewalk blowing and edging is handled by contractors.  The City awards two long term contracts for tree trimming and lawn maintenance.  One contractor trims all 2600+ trees on medians, right-of-ways and parks twice a year (See Appendix C for inventory Summary).  The other long term contract is awarded for mowing, weeding, edging and blowing all turf, including street ends, right-of-ways, parks, ball fields and medians (See Appendix D, E & F for an inventory of City maintained properties, the contractor’s scope of Work and a detailed list of specifications). 
From a City-wide survey created by the Leisure Services Department in October 2005, it became apparent that Parks Maintenance Standards needed to be established and published so residents would have a consistent method of review and comment on Parks maintenance.  These standards define the perceived, resident desired conditions of park features and were developed by Leisure Services administration with the assistance of park advocates and the general public.  (See Appendix A – Acknowledgments.) These standards will be used to assess and evaluate conditions in the City of St. Pete Beach parks. 

What are the objectives of having standards?

1.Communicate condition of the park system to Park management and staff, elected officials, and the public.

2.Develop and communicate Park Division’s goals regarding maintenance standards Establish link between park conditions and Division’s resources through systematic park evaluations

3. Assist Park’s Division staff in scheduling and prioritizing maintenance functions and resources.

4. Improve park conditions by efficient resource allocation and improved parks maintenance

What does this Manual do?
In an effort to deliver more efficient and effective City services, this manual sets forth standards to enable Park’s Division staff and City residents to assess park conditions and the Division’s ability to deliver results.  The standards provide a framework for periodically inspecting and evaluating the condition of the tangible features of each park relative to the established standards.  Over time, the data collected by Park’s Division staff will help the Division and City officials to make more informed resource allocation decisions.  
In order to fairly and consistently evaluate the conditions of the City’s parks, the City needs to define what the expected conditions of the parks should be. Currently, the City lacks reliable, measurable, and objective information on park conditions.  This parks standards manual represents the City’s first attempt to clearly delineate quality standards for all the City’s parks.  Some other jurisdictions have already implemented standards and evaluations and the City is learning from their best practices in creating this standards manual. (See Appendix B – Methodology.)
The goal of a standards manual is to improve consistency and minimize subjectivity when assessing park conditions.  This manual will allow communication and comparison of park conditions throughout the City based on a uniform model.  This standards manual will also make possible reporting on individual, regional, and citywide park conditions, as well as on specific park features.  In addition, this manual will allow the Department to develop new Division-wide performance measures and objectives in the future. 

How does this Manual work?
The Division has numerous properties that it maintains.  Initially, the Division will evaluate five property types that the City owns as listed in Table 1.
Table 1. Property Types to be Inspected with the City of St. Pete Beach Park Maintenance Standards

Park maintenance standards are classified in three broad categories: Landscaped and Hardscaped Areas, Recreational Areas, and Amenities and Structures.1 Within each category, a series of park features is evaluated.  For example, the Landscaped and Hardscaped Areas category includes five features: (1) lawns, (2) ornamentals, shrubs, and ground covers, (3) trees, (4) hardscapes, and (5) open space.  Each park feature is evaluated using separate elements that apply to that specific feature. For example, lawns are evaluated on 7 elements:  (1) cleanliness, (2) color, (3) density and spots, (4) drainage/flooded areas,
(5) edged, (6) height/mowed, and (7) holes. The manual specifically describes and defines the quality standard(s) for each particular feature.  (See Table 2 below.)
1 With the exception of restrooms, interior of recreational facilities are excluded from the park evaluation process.  Irrigation systems and natural areas are also excluded from the evaluations at this time.   
Table 2. Park Features Covered in the Park Maintenance Standards Manual

(*Excludes recreational programs.)
The evaluation form contained in this manual should be filled out to evaluate each park.  The evaluation form contains simple “yes” or “no” questions on whether each element meets the standards or not.  For example, the “height/mowed“ standard for lawns asks whether lawns are mowed and kept at a uniform height of less than ankle height – yes or no.  Pictures are included to illustrate acceptable and unacceptable standards.  Pictures may not cover all elements.  See Table 3 below for a description of the elements under each feature.
Table 3 – Elements of Park Features (PF) Included in the Park Maintenance Standards Manual

After a park has been evaluated, the park will have an aggregate score for the number of standards that it meets.  For example, if one tallies all the elements applicable to a park and the park met the standard for 90% of the elements, the park would then receive a score of 90%.  Additionally, results of different park features can be compared across park sites, for example, McKinney Park met the standard for lawns, but Vina Del Mar did not. The evaluation form includes a comments area to allow evaluators to explain why standards may not have been met, for example, “80% of the turf area was not fairly green” due to broken irrigation system.  On a citywide level, evaluation results could tell us about specific park features and whether standards were met across the City.  For example, the results could be aggregated to tell what percentage of children’s play areas met park standards across the City and/or by maintenance teams. This information could be used for many different purposes such as identifying maintenance problems, allocating resources, and improving park conditions.

What are the limits and caveats of this Manual?
A few points should be noted about this standards manual and park evaluation form.  First, the results of the park evaluations using this manual provide a general index of park conditions.  The elements that are used to rate park features are important ones as identified by the Department and the public at large. This manual purposefully avoids technical or scientific standards that are difficult to gauge.  For example, in ornamentals, shrubs, and ground covers, several standards could have been developed regarding specific plant health and shape.  Measuring for compliance with these standards would be extremely time-consuming and in the end are not necessarily visible to the untrained eye.  As a result, the elements chosen relate to items that would be discernable by an average citizen and would affect their general park experience.
The park features in this manual are reflective of the basic infrastructure of a City of St. Pete Beach park.  Although not all features will be present at each park, each feature constitutes a large part of a park’s maintenance and labor costs.  As a result, the periodic evaluation of these primary features provides an overall index of the park’s condition.  
Second, the evaluation measures the condition of existing facilities compared to the developed standards.  It does not define what should be provided or the lack of certain amenities.  Aesthetic principles of landscape design and/or other park design issues are not addressed.  While the Department may recognize whether the aesthetics are favorable or unfavorable, it is beyond the scope of these standards.  For example, a park might meet all quality standards for its existing facilities and features even though one’s park experience would be enhanced through the addition of an ornamental garden or if the evaluator feels the ornamental garden may benefit from more diverse plant life.  This standards manual therefore only defines the minimum expected conditions of the existing facilities.
Lastly, in an effort to make the scoring as reliable and objective as possible, the standards are designed in such a manner that the majority of people would come up with the same conclusions about whether a park meets certain quality standards.  It is the responsibility of the Park Division to regularly evaluate each park using the established standards and to train its staff on the standards.  

Who is the intended audience of this Manual?

1. Park Division staff
2. Elected Officials
3. Park Advocates
4. General Public

Conclusion
The intent of this standards manual and evaluation form is to collect information about park conditions and to increase users’ satisfaction with their park experience. City officials and the Parks Division look forward to the results of these regular park assessments and seek to use these results to continue to improve the delivery of services to the residents of the City of St. Pete Beach. 
Thank you.

CLICK HERE TO READ THE COMPLETE PARKS STANDARDS MANUAL