ELEMENT: parks and recreation

4. Greenwood Community Zoo- Giraffe

VIEW parks and recreation ELEMENT (FULL PDF)

pARKS AND rECREATION

Parks not only provide accessible open spaces1. Downtown Greenway Map and recreational opportunities for residents, but are a source of intrinsic environmental, aesthetic, and social benefits to our cities – from economic development, measurable health benefits from providing direct contact with nature, opportunities for physical activity and social interaction, important settings for arts and cultural programs, play spaces that provide hands-on learning environments to match the varied learning styles of children, and increased social capital of a community.

Parks provide green infrastructure – the interconnected system of green spaces that conserves natural systems, sustains clean air and water, and helps to manage storm water. Green infrastructure is a community’s natural life support system. Just as growing communities need to upgrade and expand access through their built infrastructure of roads, trails, bike paths, sewers, and utilities, they also need to upgrade and maintain their infrastructure of green spaces, greenways, parks and conservation areas.

PARKS AND RECREATION GOALS

  1. Increase quality of existing parks, access to parks and3. Multiuse Path Perkins recreation facilities, and diversity of programs
  2. Improve and expand pedestrian and bicycle paths and trails to promote active recreation and to provide better connections to parks
  3. Expand the City-Parish’s nature parks while providing educational and recreational opportunities to Parish residents

RECREATION AND PARK COMMISSION (BREC)

FUTUREBR seeks to promote BREC (Recreation and Park Commission for the Parish of East Baton Rouge) priority actions and recommendations and establish additional programs for land and natural resource conservation and management. In addition, policies that encourage walking, biking, and the alternative transportation networks will create more livable and healthy communities. A high-quality system of parks and recreation resources provides a multitude of community benefits: protecting our environment, preserving wildlife habitat, strengthening local economies, attracting new businesses, contributing to the local tax base, increasing property values, and promoting healthy lifestyles.