Editorial: Parklands drawing attention

Friday, March 29, 2002 | 9:11 a.m.

Ten years ago the stories about parks in the Las Vegas Valley were almost always depressing. Whole sections of the valley were not served by any parks at all. In other areas, Little League teams were playing until past midnight because of the wait created by ballfield shortages, and stories abounded of families rushing toward the only open picnic area and then getting into fights with other families over who got there first. Not all park problems have vanished, of course, but it was heartening to hear on Thursday that a decade of planning and commitment to parks is earning praise from national experts.

Destry Jarvis, executive director of the National Recreation and Park Association, told Sun reporter Jeffrey Libby that Southern Nevada park planning is now a model for the nation. "Everywhere else in the country where population centers are still growing, development occurs first and open space is an afterthought. In Southern Nevada, it's a forethought." This is not a statement that could have been made 10 years ago. It's nice to know that the valley is now exerting some control over its growth and that urban planners are gaining some victories.

Henderson has been a local leader in park building, winning a gold medal for its parks in 1999 and earning national accreditation in 2001. The city has added 111 new park acres in the past five years and another 140 are planned. Boulder City averages 5 acres of parks for every 1,000 residents, which is the national average and highest in the valley. North Las Vegas and the city of Las Vegas have doubled the amount of park space in their cities since 1997 and Clark County has added 259 acres in that time. Altogether, Southern Nevada municipalities opened 827 acres of new parkland over the past five years.

Hundreds more acres of parkland are in the planning stages. It's nice to see valley planners are moving us forward in this area that's so important for community life.