Sunnyvale’s Parks and Recreation Commission wants to collect data from city parkgoers.
Commissioners advanced a data-tracking program during their Oct. 14 meeting for the Sunnyvale City Council to consider funding. They hope to use sensor technology at select Sunnyvale parks to track anonymized data such as peak visiting hours, what visitors do and where in the park they gather.
Commissioners recommended a limited-time pilot program they may consider expanding, depending on its preliminary findings. Before that, they must generate interest from council members to authorize the program.
The commission has until the springtime to do so. If council members want to pursue the program, city employees will draft a plan for how the program would work. The council would then vote in June to fund it in the next fiscal year.
“Each one of us is going to have to get behind it and reach out to every single member of the city council,” commission Chair David Kesting said. “Otherwise, they’re not going to pick it up.”
Conversation surrounding park usage dates back to 2019, at the request of Commissioner Prakash Giri. The city collects data on the number of hours parkgoers reserve for spaces including picnic tables and sports fields.In 2025, parkgoers reserved 32,000 hours across the city’s 52 athletic fields.
That data, however, fails to account for casual park experiences, such as pickup sports.
“In the meantime,” Kesting said, “we’re making major decisions about how these public spaces are going to be used.”
Commissioners are facing pushback from residents who live near Las Palmas Park, where the city may develop a multi-use sports field. Almost 2,000 people have signed a petition against that design plan. Opponents argue fences and stadium lighting would limit the types of recreation on the park’s open space.
RRM Design Group, the firm managing Las Palmas Park’s redesign, learned in a spring 2025 poll that community members’ most important feature of the park is its open lawn.
Parks and recreation’s data program would not influence decision making at Las Palmas Park. The city anticipates finalizing the park’s design plans by the summer — around the time council would vote on the data project.
Sunnyvale projects the redesign at Las Palmas Park to finish in the fall of 2028. The city is allowing community members more opportunity for input, which could delay that timeline. Those meetings will be on Nov. 16 and 18. The city has yet to announce times and locations for them.
Chris Ramirez is a California Local News Fellow.