Prepared for the City of West University Place, Texas Parks and Recreation Board

This parks and open space master plan for a small "city within a city" uses clear, concise narrative and simple, engaging illustrations to describe unique and creative solutions for the revitalization of an older city. The process and the report were used to educate the client to become well-equipped advocates for important changes to their parks and recreation system.

 

West University Place Texas is located in the heart of the Houston metropolitan area, near downtown, Rice University and the Medical Center. Surrounded by bustling commercial thoroughfares, this enclave of 13,000 residents (originally developed in the early twentieth century) is land-locked, with very limited opportunities to expand its park system. The landscape architects, as prime consultants, were commissioned by the Parks Board to create a master plan for specific park development, to be implemented over the next ten years. The landscape architects expanded the reach of the master plan to include a process and report that is unique in the way it deals with urban open space:

 

• A resident survey and a series of parks board workshops helped the design team understand local perceptions, preferences and open space issues.
• The planning process was used to educate the volunteer Parks Board and expand community concepts about recreational open space in the city.
• The process and the report format were tailored to enable the landscape architects to addresses complex and controversial issues (issues that had "de-railed' a recent comprehensive planning process) and organize them into general categories that -

* are easily understood by the general public

* facilitates community consensus

• The plan envisions the entire urban matrix as recreation open space, through the reshaping of non-park civic sites, remnant urban space and street rights-of way. This helps solve the problem of scarcity of open space, and will create a park-like context for the entire city.

 

The master plan report is being used by the Parks Board, the fund-raising Friends of West U Parks and municipal departments to add to city-wide planning discussions, site specific design, fund raising, park acquisition efforts and grass-roots consciousness raising. Along with the planning process it has served to expand the idea of what a park is and where recreation can happen in the City of West U. Through a statistically defensible survey, observation and analysis, the community realized that recreation activities were no longer confined to traditional park spaces. The need for unstructured green space and safe areas for walking and bicycling were recognized as important aspects of parks and recreation planning. The decision-making groups of the city have begun to see the need for their entire city to function as a new kind of park.

 

This report is organized into two basic sections. “A Look at Today" provides a brief overview of the city and its relationship to the surrounding urban area. This is important since a key target audience for this report is benevolent foundations whose board members may not be familiar with such issues. The main portion of the report, “A Look at the Future" addresses the diversity of issues, aspirations and problems related to providing parks and open space for the city's future. Complex and controversial issues are synthesized into five broad categories of easily understood concepts. As in the planning process workshops, the intent is to gain consensus on basic concepts, without getting bogged down in polarizing details. Each category presents basic objectives and overall goals, and then follows up with specific, constructive steps (projects) to achieve the goals. The five themes include:

 

The Right Park in the Right Place -a brief primer, explaining different kinds of Parks (divided for this study into a two tier system of Neighborhood Parks and Community Parks). Appropriate size, program and service population are key to providing the "right park in the right place". Several existing parks will be renewed in light of the new standards for neighborhood parks.

 

A Park Near Home -looks at the importance of having small parks within walking distance of every home in the community. As an older urban community, existing barriers to walking access (such as major streets and a flood control ditch) are an important influence on traditional park service areas. Recommendations range from acquiring small parcels in key neighborhoods to enhancing access to existing parks.

 

Mobility in the City -highlights the need for people to walk and bicycle easily around West University Place. The resident survey identified recreational walking as the single most popular recreation activity. Good pedestrian and bicycle routes are important for access to schools and the City Center, contributing to the overall recreation experience and reducing traffic and parking congestion around the city.

 

Civic Spaces -Green Places -introduces the concept of using the civic landscape as a recreation resource and the importance of using parks as keycivic landmarks. The parks, rights-of-way and civic spaces form the network of green public landscape that will help West U retain and enhance its hometown character that distinguishes the city from surrounding Houston neighborhoods. School grounds, the City Center streetscape, private commercial redevelopment and spaces such as the library courtyard are highlighted as potential civic green places.

 

Recreation Facilities For the Future -evaluates goals related to providing recreation facilities for the long term needs of the community. Certain portions of the population, such as teens and seniors are identified as currently underserved. A key portion of this section addresses the need for the city to acquire a nearby YMCA property as the last remaining large tract of land available for park and recreation space in West University. The issue has been debated in the community for over ten years. The planning process and report has helped galvanize resolve among community decision-makers that this is the right thing to do.

The landscape architects are continuing to help the City of West University Place to implement the master plan, improving its park system and creating a greener, people- friendly urban environment.