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application of national standards to recreation and open space planning is not always warranted. Instead, it is often more appropriate for a local government to develop its own standards, using national criteria as a guide. State law requires each local government to adopt Level -of -Service (LOS) standards for parks. Adopting LOS standards, however, has a value beyond meeting a state mandate LOS standards can be a valuable tool for assessing current needs, and for predicting future needs. Thus, LOS standards are an important part of capital improvements planning. Generally, LOS standards should be based on population served. Practically, this means that the LOS standard is measured in terms of number of facilities or number of acres of parkland per 1,000 persons. The actual LOS achieved by a local government might be more or less than the LOS standard adopted by that local government. In Indian River County, as in several counties throughout the state, the following factors somewhat complicate the process of determining actual LOS for parkland: ➢ Individual citizens often use the parkland of several different jurisdictions. In Indian River County, this means that city parks serve county residents as well as city residents, and that county parks serve city residents as well as county residents. This makes determining the population to be served difficult for all jurisdictions involved. ➢ Several different jurisdictions often coordinate to provide parks and recreation. This makes it difficult to determine who provides which facilities, or what portion of those facilities. ➢ Presently, local governments in Indian River County count 100% of parks within their jurisdiction towards their actual LOS, regardless of which local governments contribute to the development and maintenance of the parks. ➢ When determining actual LOS, the same acreage cannot be counted by different jurisdictions. Considering those factors, the following questions must be addressed before setting parkland LOS standards for the unincorporated portions of the county: 1. What is the service population for Indian River County parks? To conformwith state law, the answer must include all residents of the unincorporated parts of the county. The answer could also include residents of some or all of the county's municipalities. This is true even though municipalities must provide parks and recreation, at an adopted LOS standard, for their own population. 2. Which parks serve that population? Several parks located within municipal areas are funded by both the county and the municipality. With respect to meeting local government LOS standards, state law allows two ways to account for those types of parks. One way is to count Page 39 of the Recreation and Open Space Element Supplement # Ordinance # 2005 Adopted 2005 Exhibit A