Places for people: designing parks for growing communities

NRU
May 18, 2016
By Jake Tobin Garrett

As municipalities in the Greater Golden Horseshoe grow and their urban form becomes denser, the pressures on our parks and open spaces change. Residents living in high-density neighbourhoods without private backyards rely more heavily on local parks for recreation and social activities. This requires a change in the way parks have historically been planned and designed in many municipalities.

Recently released by Park People, Thriving Places showcases 15 innovative parks and open space projects - from urban trails to downtown plazas to neighbourhood parks - that serve areas planned for or experiencing growth and intensification in the GGH. These examples - drawn from Barrie, Brampton, Guelph, Hamilton, Markham, Mississauga, Newmarket, Pickering, Richmond Hill, Toronto and Vaughan - are intended to inform and inspire more creative open spaces across the region.

With the recent release of proposed amendments to the provincial Growth Plan, which include higher intensification targets for GGH municipalities, understanding how to create high-quality public spaces for more compact neighbourhoods becomes even more important. GGH municipalities are leading the way in the creation of urban parks.

Municipalities in the GGH are experiencing more demand for parks in urban areas that support unstructured activities and passive uses, such as picnics and community gatherings, than structured activities such as organized sports.

This points to a need to focus on multi-functional, flexible spaces rather than single-purpose parks, such as a single baseball field. Brampton’s Mount Pleasant Village Square is a good example. The park can accommodate many activities with its grassy lawn, playground, public art, skating rink that turns into a splash pad in the warmer months, and location adjacent to a school with a larger sports field.

New types of parks - such as urban squares, parkettes and linear parks - are also being introduced to support a more compact form. These include different designs such as hardscape plazas and parks that expand into adjacent streets, such as Guelph’s Market Square. Many parks are also being built with the infrastructure required to support more programming, such as power hook-ups, free Wi-Fi, water access and outdoor speakers.

This increased demand for programming and events in urban parks requires new forms of partnerships among community groups, municipalities and other organizations, such as BIAs. It’s often these partnerships that deliver the types of programming that urban residents want and can become a draw for visitors. Hamilton, for example, partnered with a local BIA to program a new pedestrian promenade adjacent to Gore Park. Other popular programming found in urban parks includes farmers’ markets, outdoor yoga classes, summer movie nights and cultural festivals.

Of course, increased programming has impacts on cost. Parks in higher density areas often cost more money because of the high-quality materials needed to support a higher level of use and greater diversity in programming. Municipalities are exploring new funding tools and private sponsorships to help cover these costs. In Barrie, the downtown BIA is contributing money towards the creation of a new plaza, Memorial-Square-Meridian Place, while in Mississauga’s Scholars Green an agreement with adjacent Sheridan College helped share costs and coordinate ongoing operations such as winter maintenance.

While intensification in the GGH presents challenges for communities trying to make the best use of their limited parks and open space resources, it also Designing parks for growing communities trying to make the best use of their limited parks and open space resources, it also presents new opportunities. Flexible design, partnerships and diverse programming can serve to create thriving places for new and revitalized urban neighbourhoods.

Thriving Places, funded by the Province of Ontario through the Places to Grow Implementation fund, will be launched at a public event Thursday, May 26th at the Urbanspace Gallery at 401 Richmond Street West. Registration is open and the report can be downloaded from the Park People website.