Parks Master Plan: An Element of the Durango Comprehensive Plan: Durango, Colorado

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3.1 THE DISTRIBUTION AND ACCESSIBILITY OF PARKS In addition to the level -of- service (acres or number of facilities per thousand population), another measure of the adequacy of a park system is the location of facilities relative to the users— whether they are convenient to the community. The City standard for various park types, found in Table 1, includes a Service Area that represents a desirable maximum distance that any home should be from that park type. This is most significant for walk -to parks such as Neighborhood and Mini parks. The service area for a Neighborhood Park is % mile radius, or a 5- minute walk. Superimposing the service radius of Neighborhood and Mini parks identifies the areas of the City that are within the desired distance from each type of park (see the Parks Service Area map). Since Neighborhood and Mini parks are intended to be walk -to parks, the service areas have been truncated to remove areas that require crossing busy streets that are barriers, such as heavily traveled streets, or that extend the walking distance such as the Animas River. The service area map shows that for the most part, the City is reasonably well served with regard to Neighborhood Parks. However, there are several detailed considerations. 3.1.1 Neighborhood Parks There are a few neighborhoods in the older parts of town that are outside any neighborhood park service area. A true neighborhood park needs to have: open turf (or a sports field), children's playground, picnic facilities, and tennis or basketball courts. A neighborhood park also needs to be accessible to the neighborhood without significant restrictions. For this latter reason several of the City's school grounds cannot be currently considered as neighborhood parks. On the west side of town, the Crestview neighborhood lacks any real neighborhood park, although the Mountain Park provides opportunities for walking or mountain biking. Upgrading the Miller Middle School facility to a true neighborhood park would be a cost effective way to serve that area. The City should aggressively pursue mutually beneficial agreements with the School District to allow public access and development ofschool grounds to meet neighborhood park standards. In the northeast, the undeveloped Easter Heights Park could be developed to serve the surrounding neighborhood. The planned Sky Ridge and Holly parks will meet the neighborhood park needs in those newly developing areas. In these cases the developer dedicated the park land and the City is responsible for actual park development, the cost of which usually greatly exceeds the land value. The City should review its park dedication requirements and consider requiring the new development dedicate completed parks that meet City park standards.