From Commissioner Jeff Rader:
Master Plan Provides Guidance for Parks and Recreation
This month, a new director, Roy Wilson, takes the helm of DeKalb County's Parks and Recreation department. The hope is that the new director, like the New Year, marks the beginning of a new era for the department.
But a new face in the same place by itself does not ensure a new direction. Rather, personnel change needs to be supplemented by a forward-looking strategy for the department that fulfills the county's goals in line with the department's resources.
That strategy is already on the table thanks to the completion of a new 10-year master plan for the county's parks and recreation department. A 408-page comprehensive plan was presented this summer by an outside firm hired by the county.
Perhaps the best feature of the master plan is that it provides objective and quantifiable measurements of the county's assets for parks and recreation. It also establishes baseline standards for quantity and quality of current and future assets. (Links to the report are at end of this update.)
The report recommends the county strive to have 18 acres of green space per 1,000 citizens. Based on the county's population, that goal amounts to almost 13,000 acres of parkland, but the county currently has less than 6,000 acres. By that same benchmark, District Two would have about 2,500 acres of parkland, but currently it has about 400 acres.
