Recreation
Park systems, water recreation and recreational tourism are all factors in a community’s recreation and its impact on quality of life.
Report summary:
Recreation
Colorado Springs will always be a special place to live, work, and visit because of the amazing natural beauty that attracted the community’s founders. This inspiring beauty directly enhances quality of life but cannot be taken for granted….
Key Indicators
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Colorado Springs “offers unparalleled access to nature and plenty of outdoor recreation activities to keep us busy, making it one of the best places to live in America” according to Livability.com1.
Of 2,000 cities rated by Livability.com for its annual Best Places to Live in America rankings, Colorado Springs is ranked 45th, which is in the top 3%, and is heralded as one of four U.S. cities that will be one of “the Next Dream Outdoor Hubs”3 by Outside.
The purpose of this report is to identify specific ways to continue improving this city and region to match its beautiful setting. Due to public parks and spaces having more readily available data compared to recreational activity data, this study focuses on public parks and spaces.
As of 2022, according to AskCOS, an annual, syndicated tracking study for the greater Colorado Springs area, 93% of Colorado Springs residents are satisfied with the community’s outdoor recreation opportunities and 83% are satisfied with the parks/spaces – the two highest levels of satisfaction among 12 aspects of living surveyed.4
Park Systems
ParkScore®, prepared by Trust for Public Land (TPL), compares park systems across the 100 most populated cities in the United States. Published annually, the index measures park systems according to access, investment, amenities, acreage, and equity. (Boulder and Fort Collins are not among the 100 most populated American cities, therefore, they are not included in the scoring.)
ParkScore® Index, 2018 – 2024 (scored on a 100-point scale)5
Colorado Springs has the second-smallest range of scores across these five measures (from 38 to 69), indicating a balanced approach to parks management. Of five peer cities, Colorado Springs ranks third or better on three measures (access, acreage, and equity) and has improved on four measures since 2022.
It is also useful to compare park spending per resident. Colorado Springs’ per-capita spending increased 45% between 2020 and 2024. However, it is still less than the national median and less than all peer communities.
7 Trust for Public Land.
Colorado Springs parks and recreation ratings should be considered in context to Colorado Springs’ proximity to and volume of national forests, national parks, BLM open spaces, state parks and county parks. That wealth of resources has perhaps offset public desire to invest in city parks. The maps below visually show the park access differences between cities according to the Trust for Public Lands. Parks are highlighted in dark green; underserved areas are noted in purple.
Albuquerque
Austin
Boise
Boulder
Colorado Springs
Denver
Fort Collins
An efficient and inexpensive method to improve quality of life centered around parks and recreation is to improve communication and coordination within the parks and recreation-focused community. Many parks and recreation stakeholders are involved in the Colorado Springs and Pikes Peak region. Organizations like the Pikes Peak Outdoor Recreation Alliance (PPORA), that bring numerous stakeholders together to communicate and align, are critically important. An opportunity, albeit complex, for PPORA could be to include other institutions with significant recreational assets like public school districts, colleges, sport’s governing bodies, and large private organizations like YMCA and The Broadmoor.
It is also clear by the amount of measured volunteer hours, that even outside the daily businesses involved in outdoor recreation, Colorado Springs residents care more deeply about parks and recreation than many peer cities.
Several steps can be taken to increase the focus on and quality of Colorado Springs Parks and Recreation. For instance, emphasizing the monetized value of volunteer hours in Colorado Springs parks will increase park spending per capita with no budgetary cost. Additionally, focus should be placed on recreation and senior centers per capita. Only three communities out of the 100 surveyed have fewer recreation and senior centers than Colorado Springs. Also, continuing to expand publicly managed trails, can increase access to underserved populations within a 10-minute walk at relatively low cost. Colorado Springs can also work with ParkScore® personnel to determine if park space on military installations (especially pass-through trails) can be recognized in the system as accessible. Finally, planners, developers, and the public are encouraged to use the ParkServe mapping application for informed decision making about public access to parks, trails, and open space.
Water Recreation
In contrast to the comparison cities, Colorado Springs has the smallest amount of urban creek/ river water access, as measured by the year-over-year average of cubic feet per second of a primary waterway. Public lakes and ponds also provide access to recreational water, but a reliable data set could not be found for comparison. The annual flow of Fountain Creek, the central waterway in Colorado Springs, has doubled since 2022. However, special attention and investment is still needed to ensure the best use of this limited resource.
10 snoflo.org
Recreational Tourism
11 Longwoods International, Visit Colorado Springs
Tourism is and has been a leading industry in Colorado Springs since its founding. Outdoor recreation access is a critical element in driving visitors, with Pikes Peak and Garden of the Gods being two nationally ranked parks.
Overnight visits is a key indicator of recreational tourism. According to Longwoods International tourism reports, Colorado Springs MSA hosted 10.8 million visitors in 2023. They spent $2.0 billion, or $185 per person. Overnight visits have rebounded post-COVID, but at a slightly lower growth trajectory. Since 2018, growth in visitors has averaged 1.3% annually; growth in spending has averaged 1.5%.
Denver saw 90% more overnight visits in 2023 than Colorado Springs. As a capital city and regional hub, Denver is expected to have more overnight visitors and more business travelers in particular.
However, Denver’s annualized growth from 2021 to 2023 (11.1% in visitors, 13.6% in spending-per-visitor) far exceeded that of Colorado Springs (1.9% in visitors, 2.8% in per-visitor spending).
It will be important for Colorado Springs to plan and influence recreation attractions, facilities, fees, and transportation in a way to increase opportunities for tourists to spend more dollars and stay overnight.
12 Longwoods International, Visit Colorado Springs and Visit Denver
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