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52 Town of Aurora Parks Performance Analysis Understanding the performance and quality of services that parks and other recreational facilities within the Town of Aurora is a key factor to consider when trying to understand how these spaces can be improved to better serve the public. The National Recreation and Park Association’s (NRPA) 2024 Agency Performance Review summarizes key finding on how well parks throughout the US are performing. These findings can assist park and recreation professionals in effectively managing and planning their operating resources and capital facilities. NRPA’s review provides 29 different metrics to consider which are broken down by the total jurisdictional population. Some relevant and key metrics to consider for the Town of Aurora include: 1. A municipality typically offers one park for every 1,172 residents 2. A municipality typically offers 12.6 acres of parkland for every 1,000 residents 3. A municipality typically offers 4.5 miles of trails for walking, hiking, and/or biking 4. A municipality’s parks department typically budgets $135.53 per resident into their annual operating budget Though not mentioned in the NRPA 2024 Review, access to parks is also another key metric to consider. The Town of Aurora is largely rural in character; therefore, there is not an abundance of sidewalks for residents to utilize when accessing parks. With that, parks in Aurora are largely only accessible by foot for residents who live immediately next to them. However, a driving analysis was conducted to determine the accessibility of parks in the Town of Aurora for residents by car, which is the main mode of transit in the Town. Median Park Metric for Jurisdictions Town, Village, County, State Town Parks <20,000 Residents Parks & Nature Preserves One park for every 1,072 One park for every 1.172 residents One park for every 2,788 residents residents 12.6 acres of parkland for every 1,000 103.5 acres for every 1,000 16.9 acres for every 1,000 residents residents residents 3.35 miles or trails (J.P. Nicely and Majors At least 4.5 miles of trails 12.72 miles of trails Park) Annual operating expenses of $135.53 per $47.00 per resident* N/A resident *Town’s annual budget for Culture and Recreation as of 2025 is $655,435 – besides parks and recreational programming administration and maintenance, the budget also includes funding for celebrations (i.e. Independence Day) and the Town Historian. Comparing the performance and quality of services for parks and recreational opportunities in the Town of Aurora to nationwide benchmarking metrics for jurisdictions with 20,000 residents or less, it demonstrates that Aurora falls short for the number of parks per capita but exceeds the acreage of parkland available to residents. Additionally, the Town is lacking in the availability of trails and the amount of funding allocated towards parks and recreation. The Town of Aurora Recreation Department serves approximately 13,943 residents by maintaining 235.76 acres of parkland across five parks. This equates to approximately one park for every 2,788 residents and 16.9 acres of parkland for every 1,000 residents. Based on nationwide metrics, Aurora falls short of the nationwide metric of one park for every 1,172 residents by over one thousand residents, however, it does exceed the metric of 10.6 acres of parkland for every 1,000 residents by providing 16.9 acres for every 1,000 residents. When factoring in village, county, and state parks, as well as nature preserves in Aurora, the Town’s metrics far outperform nationwide metrics for parkland availability and the number of available parks.