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Cook Family Park survey: regional draw, local businesses benefit; city to perform warranty repairs
Summary
A two-week visitor survey at Cook Family Park found the majority of visitors came from outside Pleasant Grove, social media drove large traffic, and city staff said warranty repairs and irrigation fixes will require follow-up work including a possible end-of-season closure.
A city-conducted visitor survey found Cook Family Park is attracting predominantly regional visitors and helping local businesses, but staff also told the Pleasant Grove City Council on July 15 that some contractor warranty work and irrigation problems will require follow-up repairs.
Sierra and Kasia, who led the park interviews, said they visited the park about 10 times over two weeks and collected just over 200 visitor surveys. "We found that 77% of the visitors at the park were from outside of Pleasant Grove," Sierra said during the work session. Respondents represented 34 Utah cities and 17 states, and the survey team noted one visitor from Canada. Of respondents, 46 surveys came from Pleasant Grove residents.
Why this matters: the park's regional draw can increase local economic activity and influence future park planning, but high visitation and recent construction issues mean the city must follow up on maintenance and warranty items to keep amenities safe and attractive.
Survey highlights presented to the council included: - Most-used amenity: the splash pad, followed by the playground; pump track users often also used the skate park. - Unique draws: staff reported people traveling from Salt Lake County specifically to use the futsal courts. - Local business visits: about 36% of visitors said they had visited or planned to visit local businesses while in town; Purple Turtle and Taco Amigos were cited most often by respondents. - Social media reach: staff flagged several viral posts — a TikTok video the presenters said had more than 3,000,000 views and a Reels post that drew large engagement — as a major driver of out-of-town visits.
Park staff and public works staff also reported maintenance issues tied to recent construction. Public Works Director Neil (staff member) said some micro‑surfacing and landscape work did not meet the city's expectations. He told the council that the contractor acknowledged quality-control issues and will perform repairs, including spot treatments for micro‑surfacing. Neil said the city expects to perform warranty work and that "we will need to close the park at the end of the splash pad season to just perform some of that concrete work and some of the roofing."
Parks staff noted turf browning on a west-facing hillside and said the landscape contractor would adjust irrigation heads this week. The city plans to take control of the park's irrigation controller from the contractor so staff can manage soak cycles; if areas do not recover, staff said sod replacement is likely.
Mayor and council members asked staff to present the formal summary to the Cook family before releasing the full PowerPoint on social media. The mayor said he preferred the family see the material first and asked staff to coordinate that meeting.
Staff said they plan to repeat the survey next year to track whether the high rate of out‑of‑town visitors is sustained beyond the park's opening period.
