South Lake Tahoe, CA…In Spring 2013, El Dorado County and the City of South Lake Tahoe joined forces to create a new Parks, Trails and Recreation Master Plan for the South Shore. This plan will identify community needs and create strategies for improving recreation opportunities for residents and visitors by enhancing parks, recreation facilities, trails, events and programs.

There were two major outreach efforts to collect community feedback in the form of a mailed survey and an online survey.

The survey was mailed in August 2013 to a random selection of 1,600 households in the South Shore area. Each household was contacted three times about participation in the survey. A total of 324 completed surveys were obtained, providing an overall response rate of 22% and a margin of error of plus or minus six percentage points around any given percent for the entire sample.

The questionnaire was available on both City and County websites from August 20 through October 6, 2013. Its launch was coordinated with other outreach events, including a focus group meeting and two intercept events, so that participants could help publicize the questionnaire. A total of 885 people participated in the questionnaire.

The key findings in the surveys report that nearly 95 percent of people noted that parks and recreation are very or extremely important to the quality of life in the South Shore area. According to respondents, the most important benefits of parks and recreation in priority order include; providing opportunities to enjoy nature/outdoors (72.1%), improve health, wellness and fitness (55.9%), strengthen families, neighborhoods and our community (40.2%), and protect our natural environment (37.0%).

Please review the attached survey reports for the complete results or visit us online at www.cityofslt.us/recmasterplan