Maricopa needs more baseball fields, possibly an aquatic center, survey reveals

Maricopans’ idea of how to play isn’t necessarily in sync with what most cities’ residents want, a city-commissioned study has revealed.

“Paths or trails were always No. 1,” Dean Chambers, a project manager with J2 Engineering and Environmental Design, said of the typical result of surveys to determine local desires for recreational facilities throughout several southwestern states.

In Maricopa, the result showed a definite preference among those surveyed for facilities such as lighted baseball fields to host youth programs.

“I thought that was very interesting,” Chambers said in a recent City Council work session. “Something is going on in the community.”

The survey was conducted during Founder’s Day in October and preliminary results were first released a month later. Chambers said he expects to wrap up their ongoing research and project planning by September.

“There were many, many families and that is probably very representative of the community,” he said of those who attended the event and offered their opinions.

The ongoing study is taking the results of the survey and combining them with a comprehensive inventory of recreational facilities now in existence. It includes all recreational areas including those owned and maintained by homeowners associations in addition to public land.

One of the findings reported thus far is that the two communities with the greatest and weakest recreational assets are directly across from each other – Rancho El Dorado and Cobblestone Farms.

Cobblestone Farms fared better, Chambers said, because its facilities are open to the public without a membership or entrance fee. Such is not the case in Rancho El Dorado, where the amenities are not readily available and without cost to the general public, including those associated with the golf course, Chambers said.

He also noted the lack of sufficient baseball fields for youth competition.

“Little League is much bigger in Arizona than in some other states,” Chambers said, adding that at the community level, Maricopa is not being served well when it comes to soccer and baseball fields.

“If we look at the total owned by Maricopa, there is a bigger gap,” he said.

Chambers suggested planners forego any urge to build more basketball courts and suggested they might want to consider adding an aquatic center.

An informal poll conducted this week on www.inmaricopa.com confirmed that local interest in an aquatic center is high. Of those who had responded by 4 p.m., the highest percentage favored building an aquatic center if they had to choose it or a single one of the following five amenities:

* An aquatic center ranked first with 144 votes (35 percent)
* Multi-purpose parks ranked second with 95 votes (23 percent)
* A dog park ranked third with 71 votes (17 percent)
* Walking trails ranked fourth with 44 votes (11 percent)
* A skate park ranked fifth with 35 votes (9 percent)

Total votes: 409

The need for a community pool also ranked high in the consultants’ results, although many homeowners associations provide pools which many residents can access. Not all communities have splash pads for younger residents, and not all residents live in neighborhoods with pools, Chambers noted, adding that the greatest reason to build a city pool is to provide a place for competitive swim and dive teams.