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.
http://www.svcn.com/rose_garden/news1.shtml