ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, March 9, 1997 TAG: 9703100089
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-6 EDITION: METRO
SERIES: Problems in the parks a special report
SOURCE: DAN CASEY THE ROANOKE TIMES
MEMO: ***CORRECTION***
Published correction ran on March 11, 1997.
The population for Roanoke's Northwest quadrant is 33,641. A chart in
Sunday's newspaper gave the wrong figure.
In terms of park acreage, residents of the north side of Roanoke come in a distant second. Fixing that will be difficult.
Cindy Webb of Garden City may not realize it, but she's one of the lucky ones. Though the Southeast Roanoke resident can easily reel off a litany of complaints about her neighborhood park, she can't complain about the amount of park land in the Southeast quadrant.
Per person, it has more than anywhere else in the city.
For Charles Bonds, it's a different story. He lives in the Northwest quadrant, the city's most populous. Per person, Northwest has less than one-third of the park land that Southeast has.
An analysis of park land distribution throughout Roanoke suggests that neighborhoods on the north side are being shortchanged.
The Roanoke Times compared the city's inventory of park acreage in each quadrant with its population.
The comparisons did not include the Carvins Cove Recreation Area, 12,150 acres of protected watershed located mostly in Botetourt County.
According to the 1996 Virginia Outdoors Plan, parks "must be equitably distributed throughout the locality. Meeting the [10 acres per 1,000 people] acreage requirement alone, disregarding appropriate park type and distribution, does not provide adequate recreational opportunity."
The analysis of Roanoke's parks shows a wide discrepancy in park land per quadrant:
Southeast, with 254 acres of parks, has about 1 acre of park land for every 50 people. With Mill Mountain added to the equation, that number drops to one acre for every 17 people.
Southwest, with 366 park acres, has one acre for every 90 people.
Northeast, with 96 acres of park, has one acre per 173 residents.
Northwest, with 191 park acres, has one acre per 176 people.
Most startling is the difference between the city's north side and south side. Excepting Mill Mountain, there is an acre of park land for every 75 people on the city's south side. In the north quadrants, however, there's less than half that much: 1 acre for every 175 people.
There also is a considerable discrepancy in average park size. North of the railroad tracks, parks average about 12 acres. South of the tracks, the average is 25 percent larger - 15 acres - not including Mill Mountain.
John Marlles, chief of community planning, says one of the focuses of a proposed park study will be the distribution of parks across the city.
But the disparity was recognized by a citizens advisory committee on parks in 1980-81. Its No.1 recommendation was for the city to buy, lease or seek easements, particularly in recently annexed areas. The city administration quickly branded the idea "not feasible" because of the high cost of park land, maintenance and operations.
City Councilman William White said the unequal distribution of parks was caused by annexations in 1976, which brought more than a dozen square miles - but no parks - into the city's northern quadrants.
"That's something that's going to take time to improve," he said. "It is 20 years later, but I think we inherited that and we do need to make improvements."
Former Councilman Mac McCadden believes the unequal distribution is partly by design - an unfortunate leftover from segregation that has not been corrected.
"When these things were laid out years ago, they were laid out for a certain reason, and it's caused a lot of problems related to people using them," McCadden said. "It's put us in a very bad situation today. ... What about the woman at 12th and Melrose who can't get her daughter to River's Edge because of transportation problems? She would have a nice field at Eureka Park if they would fix it up.
"We've got to start making delivery of goods and services more important than major projects that will look good for All America City juries," McCadden added.
Officials are doubtful the city can buy or develop parks in the northern quadrants. For one thing, there are few large undeveloped tracts there. For another, money is tight, and council is under pressure from some segments of the city for a cut in the property tax rate.
LENGTH: Medium: 91 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: ERIC BRADY THE ROANOKE TIMES. Parks on the south sideby CNBinclude the showcase River's Edge sports complex, a place of
pristine soccer and baseball fields, tennis courts and kiddie
playground. color. Graphics: Chartsi by staff. 1. Roanoke parks.
Park land by quadrant. color. KEYWORDS: MGR