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A Study of the Park and Recreation Problem of the United States
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Aspects of Recreational Planning
Present Public Outdoor Recreational Facilities
A Park and Recreational Land Plan
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A Study of the Park and Recreation Problem of the United States
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Chapter II: Aspects of Recreational Planning (continued)
RECREATIONAL AREA SYSTEM PLANNING
Preparation of a sound recreational system plan must be based upon determination of the following major factors as exactly as possible:
1. The recreational requirements of the population to be served, by kind and quantity.
2. The kind and quantity of land needed to meet those requirements.
3. The lands available and suitable for the kinds of recreation to be supplied and not more valuable for uses other than recreation.
The planning of recreational systems and areas is not an exact science. Study, research, and the pooling of experience gained over periods of varying length and under a great variety of conditions, however, have provided some bases for guidance in determining area and facility requirements.
There is no standard pattern for such planning. Since there are infinite variations in population distribution, economic status, transportation, climate, character of lands available, and other pertinent factors, no county or State or regional plan can be superimposed upon any other area; each must be formulated upon the conditions found in the area to be served. There are, however, principles of planning, increasingly clearly understood, acceptance of which is in the interest of economy and efficiency.
In the process of site selection, these principles are based upon common sense considerations of economy and effectiveness:
1. In choice between sites of comparable character capable of serving approximately the same populations, that one should be chosen which can supply its intended uses at the least cost for acquisition, development, and operation. This statement may appear to be so obvious as not to be worth mentioning; the history of park acquisition, however, is full of instances of the ultimate costliness of cheap land, or land acquired by gift.
2. A single site which will serve a variety of recreational uses is preferable acquisition costs being approximately equal to several sites which, taken as a group, may appear capable of providing for those uses. In general, the development cost of the group of separate sites will exceed that for the single site; so will the day-by-day cost of administration; and these differences in cost can and should be calculated fairly closely before a choice is made.
Since costs of development, administration and maintenance are factors in sound land selection, and these can be determined only on the basis of competent development planning, it follows that such development plans and calculations of the cost thereof need to be undertaken in advance of final decision on site selection.
3. Though acreage figures may be of some use for rule-of-thumb calculation of total recreational land needs—such as the acreage standards rather widely accepted for municipal park requirements—they can be seriously misleading. Because of the fact that terrain of certain types, especially broken or rugged, does not lend itself to intensive uses, it is conceivable that one area of a hundred acres would supply a total of recreational use that another of 500 acres would be incapable of supplying except at prohibitive cost. The only measure of sufficiency of acreage is its adequacy to supply the quantity and kind of recreational use for which provision is desired, and it is better to err definitely in the direction of too much than too little.
4. "When you are in a park, all that you see is in the park."4 For the visitor to Shenandoah, the ranges of the Alleghenies to the west are as much a part of the park, as far as eye enjoyment is concerned, as if the national park boundaries had been extended to include them. The adjacent slums, the shoddy roadside stand, the billboard or the ramshackle, advertisement-covered barn, if visible to the park visitor, in the sense that they directly affect his enjoyment of it, are a part of the park. This fact points to the necessity of selecting sites, wherever possible at reasonable cost, sufficiently roomy to permit intended intensive use at such distance from its boundaries that intrusions of the sort enumerated are not a part of the park picture or that there is at least adequate opportunity to plant them out of the picture. Selection on such basis has the added advantage of discouraging establishment of those parasite enterprises which inevitably attempt to obtain profits from park use which properly should go to the public.
4 George Parker, Hartford, Conn.
In the creation of what are generically designated as "park systems" a variety of special designations are employed, which vary as to actual meanings in various states and communities. The name "park," without other qualification as to character, is applied in one place or another to virtually every type of area found in park systems, from an Indian mound, an acre in extent, to the more than 2,000,000-acre Yellowstone National Park. As used in this report, the several special designations are presumed to have the following meanings:
The word Park is a generic term, used to designate all types of areas established and maintained wholly or dominantly for recreation, whether the recreative process be physical, intellectual, or spiritual, or a combination of two or all three.
A Monument is a park area set aside primarily because of its possession of scenic, or historic, or prehistoric, or scientific qualities, or any combination of these, and is characterized by the maximum degree of preservation and protection of those qualities.
A Parkway is an elongated park of which a principal feature is a pleasure vehicle road throughout its entire length. Abutting property, as in the case of any park, has no right of light, air, or access.
A Wayside is a park, usually of limited extent, established as an adjunct of a highway, and providing the highway traveler with a location, in public ownership, where he may stop for rest, for picnicking, or to enjoy an attractive view.
A Trailway is an extended and continuous strip of land under public control, through ownership or easement, established independently of other routes of travel and dedicated to recreational travel by foot, bicycle, or horse.
The following types of areas set aside under public control for purposes other than recreation many times can and do offer recreational opportunity in addition to their primary function:
A Forest is an area set aside primarily for timber production or watershed protection.
Wildlife Reservations may be grouped under the following three classifications:
A Wildlife Sanctuary is an area set aside and maintained for the inviolate protection of all of its biota.
A Refuge is an area wherein protection is accorded to selected species of fauna.
A Preserve is an area set aside and maintained for the production of all, or certain designated species of, wildlife on a sustained-yield basis.
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Last Modified: Mon, Aug 9 2004 10:00:00 pm PDT
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