City Manager's Report
December 21, 2004

On-site Public Opinion Survey for Lake Hefner Park and Recreation DevelopmentAs a part of the background studies for the Lake Hefner Plan, an on-site opinion survey was commissioned to determine user perceptions about Lake Hefner, the existing services and developments, and the pros and cons of additional commercial and recreational uses. The data in this report were generated through an extensive market research study conducted by Insight Market Research and Consulting (Insight).

The sample was acquired through an on-site survey of Lake Hefner recreational and restaurant users. Respondents were asked to complete a questionnaire administered by a team of trained researchers. Data were collected every day during a representative week (October 11 through 23, 2004) including two Saturday data collection days. Each day was broken into three time periods each lasting two hours: morning, afternoon, and evening. Data were collected at nine different sites throughout the Lake Hefner recreational area including trails and restaurants.

All interviews were conducted in person, with a total of 410 surveys completed from adults age 18+. Questions were asked that pertained to the following topics: level of usage, quality of life, level of satisfaction, new development, other trail link visitation, and demographics. All data were processed, encoded, and analyzed by Insight.

Attached you will find a copy of the Lake Hefner On-Site Market Research Study results summary, prepared by Insight Marketing Research & Consulting.

Lake Hefner On-Site Research Results Summary

October 11-23, 2004

Quality of Life

On-site users clearly value the activities and opportunities that the Lake Hefner Trail System and neighboring restaurants provide. 92% of users indicated that the Lake Hefner Trails improves their quality of life. 65% of users strongly indicated that the Lake Hefner Trails improves their quality of life. This result clearly suggests that the Lake Hefner Trails System is a valuable asset to these residents.

Activities

· The most popular activities among Lake Hefner users are bicycling, walking, and running. 49% of trail users visit Lake Hefner at least monthly for bicycling, 47% visit at least monthly for walking, and 35% visit at least monthly for running.

· Restaurant usage is also significant as 23% of users visit the restaurants at Lake Hefner at least monthly.

Reasons for Less Usage

· The primary factor why users do not visit Lake Hefner more often is a lack of time. 31% of users indicated that a lack of time prevents them from using Lake Hefner more often. The second most important factor is safety. 24% of users indicated that safety is a primary reason why they do not use Lake Hefner more often. Among daily recreational users, this percentage is 35% and among heavy recreational usage, this percentage is 20%. In these two segments, safety is a more important factor than a lack of time. Among light and non-recreational users, the primary factor for not coming more often to Lake Hefner is a lack of time. In conclusion, for daily and heavy users, safety concerns are the primary reason why they do not use Lake Hefner more often while among light and non-users the primary factor is a lack of time.

Satisfaction Levels

· The factors that received the highest satisfaction ratings from users were the cleanliness, condition of the parking lots, the amount of available parking, landscaping, availability of park facilities, the condition of walking and running trails, and the number of walking or running trails. The factors that received the lowest satisfaction levels were the number of water and drinking faucets, safety at trail intersections with traffic, and the condition of water and drinking faucets.

Additional facilities

· 65% of users would like to see more running or walking trails while 59% of users would like to see more bike trails. The desirability for more running or walking trails is high across all demographics including daily and heavy restaurant users.

· Less than one-fourth, 24%, of users would like to see additional restaurants at Lake Hefner. As the level of recreational use increases, the desirability of additional restaurants decreases. Among daily and heavy restaurant users, only two-fifths, 41%, indicated that they would like additional restaurants at Lake Hefner.

Additional Development

· 40% of users support only ‘recreational’ type of development such as new bike trails. 31% of users support new development as long as it does not impact the trails or block the view of the Lake. 22% of users do not want to see any additional development of any type at Lake Hefner while only 5% indicated that they would be satisfied with any type of new development at Lake Hefner.

· Among daily and heavy recreational users, there is slightly more support for ‘recreational’ type of development only. Among moderate, light, and non-recreational users, there is more support for additional development as long as it does not impact the trails or block the view of the Lake.

· Among heavy and moderate restaurant users, there is more support for additional development as long as it does not impact the trails or block the view of the Lake. Among moderate, light, and non-restaurant users there is more support for only ‘recreational’ type of additional development such as new bike trails.

New Development Locations

· 38% of respondents did not want any new development at any of the potential locations. 22% indicated that new development would be acceptable anywhere as long as it does not block the view of the Lake or interfere with trails.

· Only 16% of daily recreational users and 13% of heavy recreational users preferred new development near the existing restaurants at East Wharf. However, 32% of moderate recreational users preferred new development near the existing restaurants at East Wharf.

· Light and non-restaurant users typically preferred no potential locations for additional development. 40% of daily restaurant users preferred new development on Grand Boulevard on the south side while 35% of heavy restaurant users preferred new development along NW Expressway.

Reasons for Not Supporting Development

· The most-often cited reasons that users gave for not supporting new development were blocked views (47%), a lack of peace and quiet (47%), too much traffic already (42%), too much commercialization already (42%), safety (41%) and environmental concerns (41%). Concerns about blocked views were particularly strong among heavy and moderate restaurant users and moderate recreational users.

Other Trail Usage

· 52% of respondents never visit other trail links such as Earlywine or S. Grand Boulevard. 25% of respondents, however, visit other trail links at least once a month. This usage of other trails is consistent across daily, heavy and moderate Lake Hefner users.

Reasons for Lake Hefner Preference

· Proximity (57%) and Lake Hefner settings (49%) were clearly the most important reasons why users prefer Lake Hefner. Among daily, heavy, and moderate recreation users, proximity was clearly the most important reason for preferring Lake Hefner. This was also found among daily and heavy restaurant users as well.

Demographics of Sample

· Respondents were spread across age categories. 27% of the sample were 45-54 year-olds while 8% were 65 years or older. The daily and heavy recreational users also had 45-54 year-olds comprise the largest age segment. This age was also the largest segment among the daily restaurant users.

· However, daily recreational users were 70% male compared with 56% of heavy recreational users. 60% of daily restaurant users were male while only 39% of heavy restaurant users were male.