If you’re interested in learning more about small neighborhood parks, here are some potentially useful resources for your consideration:
This 2005 book—Designing Small Parks: A Manual for Addressing Social and Ecological Concerns—looks interesting.
What’s the relevance of posting information about small parks? Well, I happen to know that some folks in Boulevard, where I live, want a neighborhood park. (I know because I'm involved with the effort.) They’ve (we've) just started canvassing residents via a survey (the image above is from the survey) distributed through the neighborhood listserve to find out what kind of a park they might want. Their (our) ultimate aim is to build support for including the park proposal in the 2010 SPLOST (Special Purpose Local Option Sale Tax) referendum.
According to a news account of a survey conducted for Athens-Clarke Co. Leisure Services department, the demand among city residents for small neighborhood parks is high—so maybe they (we) have a chance. (It would be interesting to review the data from the Pros Consulting survey, but—apparently—it won’t be available for public inspection until Athens-Clarke Co. officially releases it or something.)
The Boulevard/Barber lot is already owned by the city - it was donated back in the '60's and has deed restrictions that disallow uses other than green space. The lot near GA Power is privately owned but is largely undevelopable due to the stream in the middle of it and is taxed at a very low value. Making the undevelopable part a public park and allowing development of the portion not in a stream buffer (at the rear of the property) would actually increase what is on the tax rolls, not to mention the increased amenity value of the new park to the rest of the neighborhood.
Posted by: Matt Elliott | June 18, 2009 at 09:02 AM
Dan,
You can find out who owns any piece of property in A-CC at http://qpublic.net/clarke/
-- click on Search Records and use the map.
Posted by: Jeff | June 07, 2009 at 08:39 PM
Lane:
I've heard discussions about three possible locations for parks.
--Boulevard & Barber, the empty lot on East side of Barber
--northeast corner lot at intersection of Lyndon and Dubose
--lot next to Georgia Power substation, on north side between Hiawassee and Satula.
I'm not sure who owns these lots, or whether acquiring them for use as parks is feasible. And I'm not sure this is an exhaustive list of possibilities. Of course, figuring that out will be key to developing a proposal for park.
All the existing parks you mention are quite nice, and I'm glad to have access to them. As a resident of Boulevard, however, I'd like to have another really handy little pocket park. Personally, I'd like to see one or two small parks sprinkled right in the middle of residential areas, and not on the periphery of the neighborhood. I also badly want an off-leash dog park in the area.
Your caution about taking private property off the tax roll is well-taken. But it's often--not always--but often the case that parks add value to neighborhoods and the homes in them, and help contribute to city revenues.
Posted by: Dan Lorentz | June 04, 2009 at 02:27 PM
Just curious, but where do you suppose a small neighborhood park would go? I have lived in the Boulevard neighborhood for more than 10 years and while I agree with the walkability character of our area, I can not imagine a public park space that is not already in existence or would take private property off the tax rolls consuming limited public funds that are best used elsewhere. If you are looking for green spaces/park areas to enjoy I could suggest Chase St. School, Bishop Park, North Oconee Greenway or the very nice Talmadge Drive Park just behind ARMC. All of these areas are within walking or biking distance and are great amenities to this neighborhood. Thanks for the blog and the opportunity to post.----Lane Vandiver
Posted by: Lane Vandiver | June 03, 2009 at 09:45 PM