Greensboro Plan2Play Parks and Recreation Master Plan 2019

110 - FEBRUARY 2019

Goal: Transform a selection of existing assets into community gathering spaces that provide programming that is inclusive and contemporary. Greensboro’s neighborhood parks and indoor facilities are well-distributed, but lack differentiation. Going forward, investments should be customized to create social gathering spaces and reduce maintenance. Many times, Plan2Play has emphasized the impressive quantity of neighborhood parks that provide equitable access to open space and recreation amenities to the community. These parks can form the foundation for an expanded approach to investment at a community, or multi-neighborhood, scale. Large neighborhood parks or indoor facilities have the opportunity to gain focused, additional activities and be transformed into community gathering spaces that can draw from a slightly larger, but still locally identifiable, radius. These parks will become “Community Hearts": branded, identifiable sites with expanded #4 EXPAND Create Community Hearts

programs, creative amenities, and a spirit of place local to the neighborhoods that they serve. This approach offers a way to wisely invest and expand amenities and programs, while reinforcing neighborhoods and community identity. Action 4a. Identify Community Hearts based on a common set of principles. Identify candidate parks that meet at least three of the following five principles - • Located in high service areas (86% of all parks are within Greensboro’s highest density neighborhoods) or in neighborhoods that are experiencing substantial population growth. • Appropriately scaled to be able to take on greater programming and use (52% of parks are over five acres). • Provides contextual opportunities for hybrid facilities and partnerships (37% of parks are within a quarter mile of public schools or libraries).

• Has site-specific environmental or scenic resources that should be protected and interpreted. • Is an existing destination that is already important or meaningful to the community (18% of parks were identified by the community in public meetings as local neighborhood parks).