Rose Garden Resident

0641 | Thursday, October 5, 2006

News

City looks at creative ways to add more parks

By Monica Heger

From parks over freeways to parks on top of buildings, residents of District 6 are thinking up creative ways to use their limited open space.

The reality is there is not adequate available land to reach the goal of 3.5 acres of parks per 1,000 residents. Currently, District 6 has 36.89 acres of vacant land, and there is already a park deficit of 59.4 acres.

Staff from the department of parks, recreation and neighborhood services held a meeting last week to discuss with residents their park priorities.

One major concern was the high rate of housing developments coupled with the slow rate of park construction.

"I'd like to see a trigger--no new housing development until parks are being built," said Joe Bentley, president of the Shasta Hanchett Neighborhood Association. We're allowing 1,000 families to move into the neighborhood with no yards and parks are built in what, three years?"

Yolanda Reynolds, also an association member, suggested the old fire station training facility now being studied as a parking garage in the ballpark plan be converted into a park.

Susan Price, who lives in the Sherman Oaks neighborhood, said the lack of park space was leading to turf battles among neighbors.

Price said the park-over- the- freeway idea would be perfect.

The plan, which is being studied by city staff, includes building a park over the depressed portion of I-280 between Bascom and Meridian avenues.

Residents said the parks developers build often end up being private parks the public cannot use.

Residents also suggested more creative ways to share the use of existing parks to avoid neighbor confrontations. The biggest disputes, they said, occurred between dog owners and children wanting to play sports.

A plan for the future of parks in District 6 will be brought back to the community in two months.

 

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