Chart Our Future City of Lake Forest Parks & Recreation Master Plan | Page 65

The national standard for acreage Level of Service was
10 acres per 1,000 population, but as park and recreation
planning developed, professionals saw the need to
develop a more comprehensive benchmarking tool that
could be adjusted for and specific to each community
Because one size does not fit all, the NRPA recommends
using community-specific benchmarks if needed.
Park Metrics is the NRPA’s online management tool,
designed for public park and recreation agencies. This
tool is a supplement to the NRPA standards that have
guided land acquisition and development for the past
45 years. Through this tool, agencies have the ability to
compare themselves and their offerings with departments
and agencies in their state or region. Agencies can also
compare themselves to others based on factors such
as total population, operating budget and full-time
technical equivalent employees. Now, agencies can plan
and benchmark with more applicable data than national
averages.
Park Metrics has thousands of data points and more than
600 completed profiles. It is now the largest and most
comprehensive collection of detailed municipal, county,
state and special district data. As more agencies add their
data to the database, trends and patterns begin to emerge
that help agencies plan and benchmark.
The following Level of Service analyses reference national
NRPA standards, Park Metrics benchmarks and local and
regional-specific standards set by the State of Illinois and
the planning team. The City of Lake Forest was compared
against 2017 data for agencies with populations between
15,000 and 25,000 registered with the NRPA’s Park Metrics.
27 comparable agencies located in Midwest states were
found.
ANALYZE: INVENTORY & ANALYSIS
CITY OF LAKE FOREST PARKS AND RECREATION DEPARTMENT COMPREHENSIVE MASTER PLAN
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