|
Since at least the mid-nineteenth century in Western Europe, urban parks have played a significant role in the
cultural life of communities. Well-known urban parks include Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens in London, the Bois de Boulogne in Paris, the Retiro Park in Madrid, and the plazas of the cities
and towns in Mexico and in Central and South America.* The first landscaped public park in the United States, New York City's Central Park (modeled after the urban parks of Paris and London) was designed in 1857 by Frederick Law Olmsted, who believed that urban parks were essential to the life of communities, in part because they allowed urban residents to experience nature.
In Texas, counties and cities provide 264,460 acres of parkland at the local level. Of these 264,460 acres,
cities provide approximately 71 percent and counties provide approximately 18 percent of the park space. Commercially owned recreational sites (guest ranches, etc.) total 226,662 acres..* Cities are dependent primarily upon local bonds for funding and receive less than 16 percent of all federal funding for parks. The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department has a financial assistance program to local governments for the acquisition of land and for the development of outdoor and indoor recreation facilities. In 2002, the program had approximately #20.5 million available annually--$3.3 million is for indoor projects, $1.25 million goes to outdoor outreach activities, the remainder for outdoor projects.
Texas has a statewide average of 12.2 acres per 1000 people in local parks. According to recommendations made
in Texas Tech's study of the state's conservation and recreation needs, local governments and organizations need to acquire 558, 722 acres by 2030 to meet the National Park and Recreation
Association's goal of 25 acres of local parkland per 1000 people .* According to a study prepared in 2001 by the Trust for Public Land and the Texas Recreation and Park Society, local governments across the state need an estimated $3.29 billion in capital funding in order to meet existing demand for land acquisition, restoration, and new facilities.*
Of the 35 U.S. cities that responded to a study conducted by the World Resources Institute in 1993, Dallas
ranked fourth highest in percentage of land area devoted to parkland. With 42.2 percent of its area in parkland, Honolulu had the highest percentage, while Washington, D.C., had 29.3 percent,
New Bedford had 20.0 percent, and Dallas had 19.4percent.* Portland, Oregon, had 12.8 percent of its land area in parks, Austin had 8.8 percent, Seattle had 8.5 percent, Houston had 5.2 percent, Fort Worth had 4.8 percent, San Antonio had 2.9 percent, and Galveston had 0.8 percent.
Numerous studies have documented the quality-of-life benefits of open space and parks to a community. But parks
may also benefit homeowners. A study in Boulder, Colorado, concluded that a property's proximity to community greenbelts had a significant impact on the price of the property, and that all
things being equal, property values decrease by $4,200 for every 1,000 feet one moves away from a greenbelt. Other studies have shown similar results.*
Dr. John Crompton of Texas A&M University has shown that local parks should be viewed by local governments
as an investment, not a cost for local governments because they generate more in sales and property taxes than it costs to buy and manage them.*
Of particular interest to Texans might be a 1994 survey that sought to determine which features buyers most
want in a community. The survey responses from people who had purchased a home in a planned community and people who were looking to buy homes in a planned community in Texas, Georgia,
Florida, and California showed that open space was a very high priority. The survey found that golf courses, popular with developers, were a highly desirable feature for less than half of
those surveyed: 39.5 percent of the home buyers surveyed said that a golf course within the community was "very or extremely important," while 60.5 percent preferred open space, wilderness
areas, and gardens with walking paths.* These findings may
be good news for the developers and members of planned communities, for the cost of maintaining open space is less than the cost of maintaining a golf course.
|
