Augusta parks department presents camera-based usage audit; identifies 21 underutilized sites including Diamond Lakes work plan

Augusta Recreation and Parks officials told the Public Services Committee on Sept. 18 that a camera- and field-inspection audit of park usage conducted this summer has flagged about 21 parks as underutilized and identified planned improvements at Diamond Lakes Regional Park.

The department presented a methodology that combined five factors — park classification, condition, proximity to other parks, size and camera-observed usage — and used the maximum observed camera count divided by a site-specific capacity to calculate peak usage percentage. “We determined what the maximum capacity was for each park. And with having the maximum capacity, the cameras actually took pictures or monitored the actual people that were at the parks,” Deputy Director (presented as) Miss Williams said.

Why it matters: Parks staff say maintenance funding is not enough to bring all facilities up to standard. The audit is intended to help prioritize limited SPLOST and maintenance dollars toward parks with higher demand or strategic value.

Most important findings and follow-ups

- Diamond Lakes: Williams said crews will install benches along the walking trail within about two weeks, extend sidewalks throughout the park (about 1.3 miles of sidewalk), and add three shelters (two smaller shelters and a larger shelter near the existing shelter). Williams said on-site vendor meetings and a recent walkthrough with community members informed the placement decisions. “We have identified the areas which we’re gonna have 3 shelters added to the site,” she said. She confirmed vendors are on call to perform the work.

- Underutilized parks: Presenter A.B. Ladson said, using data from camera images taken every 15 minutes, the team classified parks with peak usage between 0–25% as underutilized. He described the dataset as limited — cameras were deployed in July and data covered between two weeks and two months depending on the site — and recommended additional collection (September data had not yet been fully analyzed at the time of the presentation).

- SPLOST and grants: Ladson flagged three underutilized sites that already have SPLOST or grant projects (Big Oak, Boykin Road Park and Dias/ Dyers Park) and said the department still plans to proceed with those capital projects because the funding is already committed. He said Big Oak and Boykin Road are scheduled to bid in November and another project is targeted for mid next year.

- Cameras and methodology limits: Staff said 7 of 137 cameras were defective and that the analysis did not yet account for seasonal variation, weather, weekend/special-event separation, or demographic use patterns. Ladson said the team used manual counts and an AI program developed by staff to estimate counts for crowded scenes where manual counting was inaccurate.

Committee reaction and next steps

Commissioners pressed several practical questions: how park condition factored into the score (Williams said condition lowered point totals because people avoid damaged parks), whether indoor community-center activity had been included (the audit focused on outdoor park amenities; separate facility/programming statistics exist for indoor centers), and the timeframe for returning updated results with the September data. Ladson said he expected to include the September download in the analysis and suggested the revised report could come back at the committee's October cycle.

Commissioners also discussed policy options for underutilized park assets: demolish/remove equipment, repurpose parcels (including potential sale after vetting by departments), or consolidate maintenance to concentrate resources on regional parks. Commissioner Guilfoyle noted an illustrative reallocation: eliminating 21 underutilized sites would raise average maintenance funding per remaining site from about $23,529 to roughly $30,000 — a way to concentrate limited maintenance dollars on higher-use parks.

A number of commissioners requested additional materials before final policy decisions: a proximity map showing distances between nearby parks, the per‑park maintenance cost estimates cited in the presentation, and the September camera dataset. Multiple commissioners asked Parks and ISM staff to return with the updated analysis at the committee meeting scheduled for October.