Plan parks with the people who use them.

Start with where people actually go

A map activity asking residents to mark the parks and trails they use, and the ones they avoid, produces a use pattern that no survey question can describe.

• Pins for places used, places avoided, and desired connections
• Photo attachments on a comment
• Results grouped by category

Facility needs, ranked by the people who show up

Restrooms, lighting, shade, courts, playgrounds, parking. Ask people to rank what matters and how far they would travel for it, and the capital list stops being a guess.

• Ranking and priority allocation questions
• Condition ratings for existing facilities
• Optional neighborhood field to see the distribution

Trail feedback from the trail

Trail comments are almost always about a specific segment. Map-based comments keep the feedback attached to the segment, which is the unit a trail plan is actually written in.

• Segment-level comments
• Categories for barriers, safety, and desired improvements
• Mobile-first capture, so it can be done on site

Open space and conservation priorities

Open space questions are about trade-offs between access and protection. Present the options, describe what each one means, and let people say what they would accept.

• Scenario comparison
• Education content published alongside the question
• A clear summary of what the community chose

Public workshops with a digital record

Publish the workshop materials and the boards so people who could not attend can respond, and so the record of the meeting is available afterwards.

• Meeting materials published as documents
• Event registration without an account
• A comment period that stays open after the room empties

Results the department can defend

The report has to show who participated, what they said, and how the themes were built. Shell produces that from the records themselves.

• Participation summary by method
• Theme development with counts
• What We Heard report ready for the commission packet