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City of Arden Hills - Comprehensive Plan - DRAFT improvements to increase efficiency and achieve the long-term parks and recreation vision and priorities for the City. The vision and goals in the 2002 PTOS Plan were updated by the Parks, Trails, and Recreation Committee and adopted by the City Council in 2006. While progress has been made on implementing the 2002 PTOS Plan, much remains to be done. Since the PTOS Plan was intended to guide programs, improvements, and decision-making through 2020, this chapter largely reflects the content in the 2002 PTOS Plan and the 2006 update to the PTOS plan. As part of the 2002 PTOS planning process, the City identified long-term trends to help determine future park, trail, and recreation needs. Recreation interests and participation are influenced by a number of factors, including, age, access to facilities, income, available leisure time, interest in the environment, new recreation technology, and social trends. In general, people are looking for quality recreation that is close to home, but they are willing to travel to obtain higher quality or more specialized activities or environments. The PTOS Plan identified the following recreational trends in the Twin Cities in recent years: • Trail use has boomed for all types of activities (walking, running, biking, in- line skating, etc); • Non -contact recreation activities are growing; • Interest in arts and natural areas is growing; • Participation in many team sports has plateaued or in some cases declined; • More youth are specializing in one sport and training year-round; • Soccer participation has increased; • Golf popularity has increased; • Woman's sports have increased; • Off -leash dog parks are growing in popularity; While this list is not intended to be all-inclusive or unchanging, it does provide insight into likely future needs in Arden Hills and can help the City set programming and funding priorities. 9.2 Regional Park and Recreation System Although the Arden Hills Comprehensive Plan focuses on local needs, the community recognizes that Arden Hills is connected to and participates in a larger, regional network of parks, pathways, and open spaces. The Metropolitan Council's regional park system includes 48 regional parks and six special recreation areas that cover more than 52,000 acres. The regional system also boasts 22 regional trails that span 170 miles. DRAFT 37 2/22/2008