Initial results of BI parks survey indicate more nature access

Published 1:30 am Wednesday, July 9, 2025

The Bainbridge Island Metro Parks and Recreation District is in the midst of refreshing its Comprehensive Plan, a guiding document that the agency follows over the next 20 or so years, which helps determine its top priorities for development and growth.

Public comment on the parks’ Comp Plan will continue through the end of July, but the initial survey results are in — and so far, the people want more access to more nature.

Over half of the residents who responded to the survey cited accessibility to existing natural resources as one of the greatest needs at BI parks; namely, improved signage on trails, more ADA-grade trails, more trail connections and more public beaches and put-ins for kayaks, paddleboards and canoes. Survey respondents also called for more educational and cultural events in the parks, with music performances being in greatest demand.

“There’s been a lot of interest in the survey,” said Matthew Keough, senior planner at the park district, but he “wasn’t too surprised.” The BI community loves their parks, Keough said.

Before opening the survey up to the general public, the district needed to establish a statistically valid survey, meaning it achieved a certain threshold of responses that accurately reflected the proportion of opinions of the general population. BIMPRD issued postcards to a random sample of 5,000 BI residents asking them to fill out an online survey, and held two stakeholder meetings in May.

Since the survey was shared publicly at the beginning of June, over 1,000 residents have completed around 600 surveys.

Respondents were asked to rank types of recreation amenities and cultural events that they most desired to see in the parks. Outside the most common responses, preservation of historic sites and increased site interpretation programs ranked highly, as well as covered and indoor athletic spaces, skill-building workshops and food classes and events.

During the May stakeholder meetings, BIMPRD also provided a free-response section, in which participants could offer specific information about how they wanted the district to take shape over the next 20 years. Several stakeholders’ responses reflected the survey respondents’ priorities — including covered or indoor courts and fields and kayak infrastructure — but others brought up new ideas.

A few stakeholders pointed out that programming at the district could use some improvements. While classes are not prohibitively expensive, if the park district must raise fees in the future, there should be a subsidy program to keep the programs affordable for students and seniors, some stakeholders wrote. BIMPRD could also do well to add options for students beyond the 5th-grade level, one stakeholder added.

Additionally, the district could look into improving transportation between parks, particularly for cyclists and students who participate in athletics at Battle Point Park and the BI Recreation Center, stakeholders said. With the right trail network, that could encourage more residents to use self-propelled transit, one person wrote. Another saw an opportunity for the district to add trail connections to the BIRC.

No matter what parks decides to focus on, “it’s a balancing act,” wrote parks leadership. “The parks district must balance many competing interests, both in terms of how it should use its money and how it should use its space.”

Residents may take the survey at biparksurvey.org/open.