NRPA Lays Out Plan for Urban parks
ASLA is actively evaluating how it can integrate parts of the plan into its public policy agenda.

Late this spring, the National Recreation and Park Association (NRPA) called together the directors of the largest local park systems in the United States to galvanize a new movement in support of urban parks and recreation. This Urban Park and Recreation Summit drew a large attendance, including a variety of civic leaders, professionals whose work involves parks and recreation, and leaders of supporting organizations like ASLA.

NRPA used the meeting to launch its National Agenda for Urban Parks and Recreation in the form of a Call to Action (PDF). This document calls for government at all levels to reinvest, rebuild, and revitalize parks and recreation resources across urban America. Why urban America? As articulated by the Trust for Public Land, it is because urban areas are again becoming centers for population growth and economic reinvestment. Moreover, the tenets of “Smart Growth” direct planners to “put the parks where the people are.” Currently, in New York City and Chicago alone, users of local parks exceed those of the entire National Park System. During the two-day summit, presentations by leaders and researchers conveyed the layers of civic and economic rewards produced by investment in parks.

NRPA’s Call to Action rests on four principles:

1. Urban parks and recreation promote health and wellness;
2. Urban parks and recreation stimulate community and economic development;
3. Urban parks protect the environment; and
4. Urban parks educate, protect, and enrich America’s young people.

One of many ASLA members attending was James A. Speck, ASLA, chair of ASLA’s Parks and Recreation Professional Practice Network (PPN) and Director of Planning and Construction for Toledo Area Metroparks. Following the summit, Speck circulated NRPA’s Call to Action to the Parks and Recreation PPN. The PPN reached consensus that NRPA’s four principles illustrate the value that landscape architects bring to projects in both public and private spheres. All landscape architects can support these principles, and ASLA is actively evaluating how it can integrate parts of the Call to Action into its public policy agenda for 2007–2008. ASLA and NRPA staff maintain close communication.

Upon review of the Call to Action, the Parks and Recreation PPN identified the central relevant issues that should concern ASLA:

• Current levels of government funding are not sufficient to keep parks open and accessible.
• Parks planned without assistance from a design professional will likely become a net burden on the local community.
• Many localities have no mechanism to allow landscape architects to lead sizable community projects, even if the project is a park or parks master planning.
• Cultural memory does not honor the historical role landscape architects played in the development of our country’s great parks. “Landscape architects design parks. I think it is critical that our voices be heard,” says Terry Ryan, FASLA.
• Increasingly, development is encroaching upon rural areas without corresponding attention to open space or greenbelt plans that would provide opportunities to recreate and enjoy natural areas.
• As ecological systems become at once more stressed and more valued by the public, it is critical to maximize opportunities to use open space for environmental and social benefits. According to Mark L. Johnson, ASLA, “The key is the locating of program elements that are in harmony with the environmental and social needs of each site. We need to show how our participation in recreation site layout can enhance public use, enjoyment, and quality of life.”
• Market demand for compact, mixed-use communities is growing. “Thus the need for a rebirth of urban parks,” says Bill Wilsher, ASLA. “Who better to lead that charge than our profession?”

According to PPN Chair Speck, “Our profession works every day to protect clean water, healthy urban forests, and air quality; provide for proper handling of stormwater; and monitor other indicators of environmental quality and livability. Landscape architects are equipped to work every day to create partnerships, inventory assets, and encourage steady improvements in the quality of outdoor civic spaces for the growth of the economy and the health and well-being of the citizenry.” The Parks and Recreation PPN will continue to urge its members, and the ASLA membership at large, to increase communication with state and local governments as citizen advocates in long-range planning of parks and recreation services.