Park-Smart Precinct One
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Park-Smart Precinct One Park-Smart Precinct One The Trust for Public Land August 2019 © 2019 The Trust for Public Land. The Trust for Public Land creates parks and protects land for people, ensuring healthy, livable communities for generations to come. tpl.org Table of contents Preface ..............................................................................................................................................4 Executive summary .........................................................................................................................7 Section 1: Why Park-Smart Precinct One? .................................................................................13 Section 2: Park-Smart approach ..................................................................................................16 Section 3: Precinct One overview .............................................................................................. 28 Section 4: Community priorities: engagement results ........................................................... 49 Section 5: Geographic priorities: spatial data analysis results ............................................... 65 Section 6: Implementing Park-Smart Precinct One ................................................................. 81 Conclusion .................................................................................................................................... 87 Online Appendices https://web.tplgis.org/parksmart_precinctone/ Appendix 1: Current conditions report Appendix 2: Benchmarking study report Appendix 3: GIS criteria matrix Appendix 4: Online survey report Appendix 5: Phone poll report Appendix 6: Community workshop results Appendix 7: Park case study report Appendix 8: Interview results Appendix 9: Steering Committee notes Appendix 10: Participant list Appendix 11: References park-smart precinct one 3 Preface Acknowledgments Park-Smart Precinct One was a collaborative effort. Over 2,000 community members participated in the project’s community engagement. Experts from local government agencies, nonprofits, universities, and local businesses guided the overall process as members of the project’s Steering Committee, participated in interviews to better understand the local context, and guided the project’s mapping analysis as members of a Technical Advisory Team. Park-Smart Precinct One would not have been possible without the generosity of Houston Endowment. Finally, we are enormously grateful to the staff of Precinct One, who have spent countless hours guiding this project. Project staff This report was prepared by The Trust for Public Land in partnership with Precinct One. The Park-Smart Precinct One effort was a collaboration of The Trust for Public Land, Precinct One, Houston Parks Board, and Asakura Robinson with additional help from several outside consultants. THE TRUST FOR PUBLIC LAND Chambers Washington, General Lisa Graiff, Beyond the Bayous Matt Dixit Moffa, Research and Superintendent of Parks Project Manager Innovation Project Manager Amar Mohite, Director of Planning Amanda Nunley, GIS Project Kristen Weil, GIS Project Manager and Infrastructure Coordinator Marlon Connley, Houston Program Jakob Stewart, Communications Manager Coordinator ASAKURA ROBINSON Matthew Clarke, National Creative Maureen Haver, Communications Luis Guajardo, AICP, Senior Planner Director Placemaking Director Keiji Asakura, Principal Ana Yanez-Correa, Director of Policy Alexandra Hiple, Center for City Zakcq Lockrem, AICP, Managing Parks Excellence Program Manager Reginald Adams, Director of Public Principal—Director of Planning Art and Design (former) Lida Aljabar, Interim Director, Eric Leshinsky, Senior Designer and Climate-Smart Cities Amber Weed, Senior Policy Advisor Planner (former) Chrissy Pepino, Junior Planning Katie Short, Senior Policy Advisor Saima Musharrat, Planner (former) Project Manager (former) Lance Gilliam, Senior Policy Emma Hoffman, Creative Advisor ADDITIONAL CONSULTANTS Placemaking Intern (former) Tyler James, Senior Policy Advisor Kate Lenzer, GISP, Unique Places GIS Jennifer Plowden, Senior & Design, GIS & Design Associate Conservation Economist HOUSTON PARKS BOARD Laura Tolley, Principal Consultant, LT Beth White, President and CEO Communications PRECINCT ONE Chip Place, Managing Director of Amy Wilson Morris, PhD, Principal, Brandon Dudley, Chief of Staff Capital Programs Land and Water Connections Consulting, former Associate William Taylor, Director of Lisa Kasianowitz, Community Development and Infrastructure Director of Planning for The Trust for Outreach Manager Public Land Rhonda Skillern-Jones, Community Engagement Coordinator 4 park-smart precinct one Project partners THE TRUST FOR PUBLIC LAND is a national nonprofit organization dedicated to creating parks and protecting land for people, ensuring healthy, livable communities for generations to come. Since 1972, The Trust for Public Land has helped protect more than three million acres in all 50 states. PRECINCT ONE manages more than 200 parks, 11 community centers, numerous hike-and-bike trails, three maintenance service centers and several area offices, all of which provide an array of services to Precinct One residents. Commissioner Rodney Ellis’s mission is to better the lives of the people in Precinct One by providing quality and accessible services and programs and fighting for important reforms that benefit all Harris County residents. THE HOUSTON PARKS BOARD creates, improves, protects, and advocates for parks for everyone. The vision of the Houston Parks Board is thriving parks and communities for everyone forever. ASAKURA ROBINSON is a planning, urban design, and landscape architecture firm which strengthens environments and positively impacts communities through innovation, engagement, stewardship, and an integrated design process and our employees are leaders in social and environmental design. For more information, please contact: William Taylor Director, Development and Infrastructure, Precinct One [email protected] Robert Kent North Texas Area Director, The Trust for Public Land [email protected] For copies of this report, please contact: [email protected] park-smart precinct one 5 Message FROM Commissioner Rodney Ellis Providing access to parks and greenspace is one of my primary dabphoto responsibilities as a Harris County Commissioner. The immense health, environmental, and social benefits that communities experience from parks and greenspaces also underscore the importance of ensuring equitable access to high-quality parklands for people in all Precinct One communities. “Equity” is one of the guiding tenets of Precinct One’s mission and this project aligns our actions with our mission. With Park-Smart’s community-driven results, we have a stronger understanding of how Precinct One can provide a more enriching experience in our parks and greenspaces, improve quality of life, and foster environmental resiliency in all of our communities. One clear theme emerged in the report: Precinct One needs to focus on investments that improve our existing parks. Whether it is adding hike and bike trails, improving facility maintenance, adding programs, or improving safety, we hear you loud and clear. While we are always making park improvements, we are committed to making it an even greater focus going forward. Precinct One will use its limited resources to invest in its existing parks and unique new greenspace opportunities, but we can’t do it all. I encourage groups and individuals to use this report—especially the mapping tool—to identify and advocate for new park and greenspace projects in their communities and in cooperation with other governmental entities, nonprofit organizations, charitable foundations, and/or community-based organizations. I want to thank all Steering Committee members, the Technical Advisory Team, and our community members who were very active participants in our community engagement process. This process could not have been successful without our partners at the Houston Parks Board and The Trust for Public Land. A special thank-you is owed to Houston Endowment for its generous financial support of Park-Smart. Stronger parks lead to stronger communities. Building on the transparent and community- focused approach of Park-Smart, I am looking forward to working closely with neighborhoods across Precinct One to enhance our parks so that they will continue to be enjoyed for generations to come. Sincerely, Commissioner Rodney Ellis 6 park-smart precinct one Executive summary Introduction MEASURING ROUGHLY 375 SQUARE MILES, HARRIS COUNTy’s PrecincT ONE IS HOME TO 1.1 MILLION PEOPLE. The 302 parks in Precinct One provide enormous benefits to local residents, receiving 33 million visits annually. Open space, parks, gardens, and trails can provide critical green infrastructure to help Precinct One improve community health and well-being, build the social connections necessary for community resilience, and meet environmental challenges. However, roughly half of Precinct One residents do not have access to a close-to-home park. Park-Smart Precinct One was launched in 2018 with the goal of determining the most equitable and strategic ways to build community resilience by expanding access to all the benefits of close- to-home parks and trails. Community priorities Park-Smart Precinct One engaged over 2,000 local residents through various in-person engagement methods, an online survey, and a phone poll. For a detailed discussion of engagement