| May 8, 2003
News Release As a way to meet the public need for enhanced park facilities in a time of budget cuts, King County announced the establishment of the Association Development and Operation Partnerships (ADOP) Program to create new and enhanced facilities through public/private partnerships. Parks is holding an open house to provide those interested with more information on how to get involved. "The goal of ADOP is to be able to continue improving King County parks facilities at a time when we are facing budget cuts," said King County Executive Ron Sims. "Though public/private partnerships we can leverage private funding and the sweat equity of groups that use parks in a collaboration that benefits all. Changing the way we do business includes engaging in new partnerships that help improve parks for everyone." The ADOP Program empowers organizations that use parks to meet recreation facility needs throughout the region by matching their sweat-equity, expertise, revenue potential, and other resources with the vast inventory of compatible County-owned facilities and land. For example, athletic field users enthusiasts will now have ADOP projects benefit the organizational partners because they gain a facility that meets their standards and addresses their activity's public programming needs. ADOP also benefits the public at large through new and enhanced public recreation facilities without new tax-funded operations and maintenance costs. The program was initially recommended by the 19-member Active Sports and Youth Recreation (AspYRe) Commission and adopted by the Metropolitan King County Council on April 1, 2003. In addition to adopting the ADOP Program, the King County Council has made a small amount of capital grant funds available for selected ADOP partnerships in 2003. "Healthy communities must have parks and places for active recreation, so the ADOPs program is good for the park users, and it's good for public health in the County" said, Geoff Clayton, interim Chair of the Active Sports and Youth Recreation Commission. "It's really a spectacular opportunity for people to expand public participation in sports and recreation even in tight fiscal times. ADOP is modeled after the County's successful partnership efforts that have resulted in a soccer complex (Lake Washington Youth Soccer), off-leash dog area (Save Our Dog Areas, S.O.D.A.), rowing facility (Sammamish Rowing Association), velodrome (Marymoor Velodrome Association), and other valuable public facilities. The program is already being used to consider partnership possibilities for the community-based development of an indoor tennis facility, a regional moutainboard riding area, model plane flying area, backcountry mountainbike course, whitewater recreation area, various sportsfields complexes, and many other facilities and concepts, all of which would happen without tax-funded operations and maintenance costs. "The County's ADOP program is going to be an excellent tool for addressing specific sports and recreation needs, especially, emerging sports, destination sports, and sports or recreation facility needs that have a regional user base," indicated T.J. Davis, Project Manager. "But it will also really help community organizations that simply want to invest time, energy, and other resources to create or enhance any public recreation facility on County parklands." ADOP partnerships are approved based on overall public benefit, environmental stewardship, neighborhood relations, meeting identified recreation needs, accommodating existing users, overall quality of the partnering organization, and many other considerations to ensure that partnerships have the highest likelihood for long-term success and provide the best public benefit. Formal agreements ranging from 1 to 30 years are developed, implemented, and monitored on an annual basis. Open house scheduled for May 14, 7 PM To learn more about the program and how your community organization, user group, or sports association might become an ADOP partner, there is an open house scheduled for May 14, at 7:00pm at the Clise Mansion in Marymoor Park. For more information: If user groups, community organizations, or sports association already have an idea for a County park, facility, or property, or would like to know what compatible sites might exist for their activity, or have any other questions regarding the ADOP program they should contact: T.J. Davis, Project Manager / Commission Liaison Department of Natural Resources and Parks 201. South Jackson Street, Suite 700 Seattle, WA 98014 Phone: (206) 263-6214 Email: tj.davis@kingcounty.gov Related Information |
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