Final total for completed Capilano Community Park Redevelopment surveys was 625 – 221 adult surveys, 43 youth surveys and 361 children surveys. In the last issue, we included a summary of the adult survey results. Below you will find a high level summary of children and youth survey results.
Summary of Children and Youth Survey Results
Of the 361 children respondents, 14% were 5 years of age or less; 38% were between the ages of 6 and 8; and 48% were between the ages of 9 and 12. Of the 43 youth respondents, 40% are between the ages of 12 and 13; 56% are between the ages of 14 and 15; and 5% were 17 years of age.
The children and youth had multiple opportunities in the survey to express their preference for certain playground equipment. In all cases, they indicated preferences for many different pieces of equipment, suggesting they enjoy a wide variety of equipment and activities at their desired playgrounds. Swings, slides and spinners were consistently among the most popular, followed by various types of climbing equipment, rocking equipment, bridges, overhead bars and tunnels. Gliders/ziplines were not provided as a choice, but were frequently mentioned in open-ended questions. A spray park was favoured by over 60% of children and a water-play feature by almost half. Water was also frequently included in images drawn by the children. Over half of the youth ranked a spray park as high importance Music play was the least popular features for children and youth.
A major theme emerged of having connectivity between the many different pieces of playground equipment. The children’s drawings demonstrated a desire to have large multi-structures that incorporated climbing structures (bars, rock walls, overhead bars, monkey bars), bridges, tunnels, overhead bars, and slides into one interconnected structure. Their multi-structures would then have some of their favourite standalone equipment such as swings, spinners, rockers, and spray features surrounding the larger play structure.
When asked to rank the importance of special features, the items that were selected as high importance by at least half of youth respondents were Spray Park, Basketball Nets, Interactive Water Play Feature, Skateboarding Area and Volleyball. Bike Bumps and Exercise Equipment were slightly less popular, while the Outdoor Fitness Circuit and Music Play Area were the least popular.
Landscape Features had varying support from youth respondents. Benches/Seating, Picnic Area and Paved Paths were ranked the highest. Lighting and flower or vegetable gardening ranked moderately and low, respectively. More than 70% of youth respondents chose high importance for Water Fountain, Washrooms and Garbage Cans.
The surface material preference from the children and youth survey was for sand, drawing a 61-68% favourable response from each group, respectively. Paved rubber was the next preferred material (48% favourable response for both groups), while wood chips, with 3-8% favourable response, was a distant third, only slightly above the response for other undefined materials (concrete, asphalt, crushed shale, pea gravel, paved brick, etc).
We always welcome more hands! Please come out to a committee meeting and learn how you can be involved. To talk to someone in your community contact Jill at 780-469-0513 or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .