A few months ago, the City of San Jose initiated a citizen-led study of athletic fields and their availability across our community. The Sports Field Feasibility Study is considering space requirements and availability for field sports such as Lacrosse, Field Hockey, Soccer, Softball, Rugby, Cricket, Flag Football.

The San Jose City Council approved the $165,000 plan to hire a consultant and seek community input on ways to better utilize field space within the city last December, after Councilwoman Nancy Pyle proposed the idea.

Participants at the meeting were offered a chance to sign up for the study’s five subcommittees, which will inventory existing facilities; identify partnerships or land acquisitions; inventory sports user groups; explore other cities’ sports fields policies; and examine San Jose’s current permitting and scheduling process.

A subcommittee of the research group has been formed to gather input from all SJ sports field users about their organizations and the fields that they use. In a recent letter to sports groups, the committee invited users to complete an online survey about their organization.

Dear Sports User Group,

On October 17, 2006, the City Council of San Jose voted to create a committee of community volunteers to study the current conditions and operations of San Jose sports fields. This committee is looking into methods for improving the operations of City-owned sports fields as well as School District-owned sports fields within the city limits.

This committee has divided their efforts into several subcommittees that are addressing the various aspects of field construction, maintenance and usage, as well as making recommendations on prospective new locations and company partnerships. If you would like more information on these efforts, please see the City of San Jose Parks, Recreation & Neighborhood Services website under the topic of “Sports Fields Feasibility Study Plan.”

I am writing to you on behalf of their Subcommittee #3 that is collecting data on all of the user groups that utilize sports fields within the City of San Jose. The chairperson for this subcommittee has requested that we support their efforts by asking each of you to take their on-line survey. They are gathering information about sporting organizations such as yours, and the fields that you use.

If you would take a few moments of your time, their survey is only 10 questions long and shouldn’t take more than 5-10 minutes to complete. The information you provide will help them present to the City of San Jose concrete information about the sports user groups that use their fields, hoping the City of San Jose makes the right decisions for improving the sporting fields throughout their municipality. It is crucial that this information be gathered as quickly as possible. If you are serious about helping them out, please do not delay completing this survey. Their deadline for gathering this information is July 26th

The internet address for our survey is:
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=NS0mbZ4Z2ONtlhTXNi_2f2Sg_3d_3d

If you have any questions about this, you can contact Joe Albayalde with the Parks & Recreation Department for the City of San Jose at (408) 871-3826.

Thank you,

Chuck Shepherd
Chairperson, Subcommittee #3, Sports User Groups

Since District 6 (including WG) has been known as an area with fewer open space and park resources, you might have an opinion on the subject.