Platte River Restoration | Economic Recovery | Artificial Sports Turf

Miami-Dade County Mayor Carlos A. Gimenez

J u n e 2 0 1 2w w w. n r p a . o r g

MastersPlanMiami-Dade’s Bold

Blueprint for the Future

of the

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Parks & Recreation at www.parksandrecreation.orgContents

Platte River Restoration | Economic Recovery | Artificial Sports Turf

Miami-Dade County Mayor Carlos A. Gimenez

J U N E 2 0 1 2W W W. N R P A . O R G

MastersPlanMiami-Dade’s Bold

Blueprint for the Future

OF THE

CoVer Story

36 Masters of the PlanIn Miami-Dade County’s innovative 50-year master plan, all public spaces are parks.Phil Hayward

Feature

42 A Watershed PartnershipCommunities along the South Platte River near Denver band together to conserve the river corridor and provide a steady flow of interconnected recreational trails.Elizabeth Beard

DepartmentS

8 agenCy SpotlightSan Diego County, California

11 KioSK: who, what, where, anD how— arounD the parKSEconomic Recovery Predictions, Sprite Spark Parks, California State Park Update, Quarry Redevelopment into Parks

49 nrpa in aCtion: newS oF the aSSoCiationPark & Recreation Month 2012, PRORAGIS Waterfront Access Data, New Premiere Agency Membership Package, Volunteer

Spotlight – Tom Venniro, Municipal Golf Institute, National Recreation Foundation Grants Review

56 operationSInvesting Wisely in Artificial Turf Fields

59 proDuCt rounDupNew products and services for parks and recreation agencies

63 Ad iNdex

64 parK BenChCumberland Park, Nashville, Tennessee

ColumnS

4 perSpeCtiVeSWhat Inspires You?Barbara Tulipane

6 eDitor’S letterPlan on ItPhil Hayward

23 aDVoCaCy upDateUrban Directors and AdvocacyJoel Pannell

25 law reViewNo Liability for Obvious Playground DangerJames C. Kozlowski, J.D., Ph.D.

31 puBliC healthWalk this WayMaggie Cooper

33 Future leaDerSMembers MatterKate Schneider

BonuS ContentFor additional articles and information from this issue, please visit www.parksandrecreation.org

On the cOver: miami-Dade County mayor Carlos a gimenez by Peter Dooling/miami-Dade County Parks, Recreation and Open Space

Crandon Park’s two-mile beach is one of the most popular recreation destinations in all of Miami-dade County.

Parks and Recreation Month

poster inside!See PAge 59

2 Parks & Recreation   J u n e 2 0 1 2    w w w . N R P A . o R g w w w . N R P A . o R g    J u n e 2 0 1 2    Parks & Recreation 3

Co

Ve

r S

to

ry

fifty yeaRS agO, miami-DaDe COunty, flORiDa,

sat on the verge of a tremendous growth spurt with the po-

tential to overwhelm the very nature of what attracted people

there in the first place. To head off the demands of the anticipated on-

slaught, the county’s parks and recreation department produced a 50-

year master plan that concentrated on land acquisition, development,

and the kinds of parks that would be built. Today, Miami-Dade Parks,

Recreation and Open Spaces (MDPROS) department has launched a

follow-up 50-year master plan with the poten-

tial to radically improve the quality of life in the

region and serve as a model for municipalities

around the country interested in developing

master plans. This article explores the devel-

opment of the master plan through three key

municipal figures: Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos

A. Gimenez, MDPROS Director Jack Kardys,

and MDPROS planner Maria I. Nardi, chief of

planning and research. As you will read, many

other people and agencies are instrumental in

Miami’s grand plan for the future.

Miami-Dade county takes parks, recreation, and open space to new levels.

By PhIl h Ay wA R D

of the

I recognize that parks are essential

to the health, well-being, and

happiness of every resident in our

community.—Miami-Dade County Mayor

Carlos A. Gimenez

photo of Carlos a. Gimenez by peter DoolinG36 Parks & Recreation   J u n e 2 0 1 2    w w w . N R P A . o R g w w w . N R P A . o R g    J u n e 2 0 1 2    Parks & Recreation 37

“The original plan was done for suburban sprawl. It was more specific and talked more about acquisi-tions, development, and what kind of parks would be developed in those various areas,” Kardys explains.

“The current plan is more of a framework for a park system and is more theoretical with guiding principles for the long run, rather than a nuts-and-bolts capital plan with deadlines and how to lay out a park system,” Kardys says. “It creates a framework of understanding and a commitment to developing the public realm in total. The original plan was just about parkland—this one is about parks, natural areas, cultural areas, pub-lic spaces, greenways, blueways, streets. It’s about everything that is in the public realm—looking at it through what we call a ‘park window.’

“When you leave your house and you step onto the sidewalk in front of your home, you’ve entered the public realm,” Kardys says. “The master plan is a vi-sion for that public realm.”

Kardys describes the master plan as a vision about wider sidewalks, tree-lined streets, and other ways to link to parks in five to 10-minute walking distance. What

he likes most about the plan is in how it places the parks and recreation department at the center of all development.

“Unlike it being part of a development plan or devel-opment pattern in a communi-ty, this open-space plan really does start with the parks,” Kardys says. “It has allowed us, as a park agency, to gain huge credibility in a very short period of time. It real-ly influenced why the mayor [Carlos A. Gimenez] ended

up taking elements of our public works department and putting them into the parks and recreation department.”

When Kardys came aboard as inter-im director of MDPROS in 2007 after seven years as assistant director, chief of operations, the master plan was 90 percent complete and almost ready to present to municipalities. For the most part, Kardys took over the helm at the public relations stage—selling it to the 35 incorporated municipalities with-in the county boundaries consisting of 1.3 million residents. Another 1.5 mil-lion residents comprise the unincorpo-rated portions of the county. To date 23 of the 35 municipalities have signed on to the master plan through its coordinat-

ing body, the South Florida Parks Coalition, which in-cludes two national parks and three state parks. Key to the effectiveness of the master plan is the agreement of the participating municipalities to abide by and adopt the principles of the master plan in their own strategic, zoning, and development plans.

“All of that has been achieved through the South Florida Park Coalition,” Kardys says. “We’re the ones that coordinated that—we actually provided the charter and sample resolution.

“Two years ago we spent the entire summer in a public speaking bureau format where we trained all of our folks to go out and give PowerPoint presentations to every civic group…to get this master plan adopted.”

Less than a year ago, Kardys’s department got a huge boost when Carlos Gimenez came into the office as mayor of Miami-Dade County, following the recall of Mayor Carlos Alvarez. Miami-Dade County was in a period of severe belt-tightening and Gimenez saw opportunities for efficiency by consolidating the num-ber of county departments from 42 to 25. Of direct and significant importance to the parks department

was Gimenez’s decision to fold key elements of public works into the parks department.

“Was I surprised? I’ll say,” Kardys recalls. “It was logical, though it still could have been the flip of a coin. But we are the Department of Green…and it made sense to centralize for economies of scale. Say, where equipment could be shared. We’ve been able to streamline operations, such as sharing tree crews and moving road maintenance into neighborhood parks.”

Most importantly, the merger came with the full support of Gimenez and his vision for improving the quality of life in Miami-Dade County. A longtime fire-fighter, city manager of Miami proper, and a Miami-Dade County commission-er, Gimenez came into office already a supporter of parks and recreation.

“I recognize that parks are essential to the health, well-being, and happi-ness of every resident in our commu-nity,” Gimenez says. “They are public spaces where we as a community of diverse individuals can come togeth-er as equals to enjoy family, friends, civic life, and nature.

“Our parks have certainly shaped me, my family, and kids from all over our county,” Gimenez continues. “They have provided memories that have shaped our lives and that will be with us all our lives.”

Throughout the various chang-es in leadership in the county Maria Nardi had directed the creation of its Open Space Master Plan. She came to the county highly regarded for her work initiating Miami 21, a re-writing of the city’s land-development reg-ulations to make it a more walkable, pedestrian-oriented community. Nar-di regards the county master plan as unique among cities grappling with their futures. For starters, she consid-ers the Miami plan an “urban design.”

“When we generated the plan, we brought together various departments because initially the idea for it was to really be the vision for the county as a whole,” Nardi says. “We brought to-gether transportation engineers, urban designers, landscape architects, envi-ronmental planners, biologists, park planners, operations, and recreation professionals all into one big workshop.

For two years we developed this plan in intensive ses-sions to really create a comprehensive, holistic vision that would guide existing and future development in Miami-Dade County.”

Nardi didn’t lack for inspiration and models. She says the master plan was born out of smart growth princi-ples and the ideas of the new urbanism. “It all boils down to creating walkable communities,” she says.

Nardi also cites the influence of the Miami-based

when you leave your house and you step onto the sidewalk in front of your home, you’ve entered the public realm. The

master plan is a vision for that public realm.

—Jack Kardys, Director, Miami-Dade County Parks,

Recreation and Open Spaces

pe

ter

Do

oli

nG

3

MIAMI-DADE COUNTY PARKS AND OPEN SPACE MASTER PLAN

SEAMLESSNESS BEAUTY ACCESS EQUITY SUSTAINABILITY MULTIPLE BENEFITS

Description of general area for recreation opportunities not

site speci c

Miami-Dade County Parks and Open

Spaces Master Plan

http://www.miamidade.gov/parksmasterplan/home.asp

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design firm Duany Plater-Zyberk & Co. for its work in designing new and existing communities. DPL uses a “transect” approach to evaluating human habitat, just as a biologist would determine the optimum habitat for a particular species. For human habitats, DPL con-siders the transect in terms of the most urban to the most rural. “[In Miami-Dade County] we offer a wide diversity of open space,” Nardi says.

Miami-Dade’s master plan is more than just a “plan,” Kardys and Nardi stress. Because the par-ticipating municipalities and the county commission-ers approved the plan in votes, the program has teeth behind it. Nardi says the creation of two “manuals” provides the guidance to steer development in ac-cordance with the plan.

“They really explain this relationship we have grown with other departments through this vision of

the master plan,” Nardi says. “We worked with coun-ty departments of planning and also with [the depart-ment for] rights of way to develop a manual for private development and for public development. It’s really the first time that I know of in the country where the standards for an open space master plan and its prin-ciples are being included in the master plans for de-partments within a county.”

The MDPROS recently incorporated a compo-nent into its Open Space Master Plan that promis-es to greatly accelerate its vision of interconnected parks while also addressing the issue of blighted strip malls and other distressed commercial real es-tate. With the support of Mayor Gimenez, the county is working with the Redfields to Greenfields program founded by Michael Messner of the Speedwell Foun-dation (see articles in the March 2011 and February 2012 issues of Parks & Recreation).

Miami-Dade became one of 12 regions in the coun-try to partner with the City Parks Alliance to work on converting distressed real estate into sustain-able parks and open space. The county’s Redfields to Greenfields program received a $40,000 grant from the Knight Foundation and Speedwell to lay the groundwork for a pilot project within the next year. The initial premise for being able to partner with these groups rested on the question of what the county could do with $5 billion in hypothetical money for develop-ing park and open space. The county’s master plan fit well with the Redfields to Greenfields approach.

Kardys explained the Redfields to Greenfields com-ponent this spring at the Great Parks Summit, which biannually addresses its master plan. The program made Redfields to Greenfields the thematic center-piece of this spring’s conference for professionals and citizens. Fundamental to the Redfields program is the current market for inexpensive real estate which Kard-ys points out won’t last for long. He uses the example of a 10-acre piece of distressed real estate, which when converted to a park and mixed-use development, can annually generate upwards of $500,000 in property taxes. That’s enough to cover $200,000 in annual park maintenance and operations with the remainder go-ing to the county’s general fund, Kardys explained in an article in the Miami Herald in April. The commer-cial section of the 10-acre tract would be financed and developed by private developers who may be helped through the creation of a special tax district.

Nardi says the county is especially well suited to leveraging the benefits of the Redfields program because of the groundwork laid by its master plan. Through partnerships with various agencies, the parks department is promoting healthy lifestyles and increasing the community’s access to parks by

eliminating barriers in the built environment that influ-ence physical activity, obe-sity, and chronic disease. With the county’s health department, they have de-veloped access and equity strategies for parks, open space, and recreation pro-gramming policies; urban design manuals—walkabil-ity and active living stan-dards to guide the design of private and public devel-opments; and a countywide recreation facility and pro-gram inventory to assess gaps in the system and co-ordinate service delivery among 35 municipalities, as well as state and federal agencies. With the University of Miami-Miller School of Medicine, the parks depart-ment is working to provide physical and nutritional evidenced-based recreation activities for children to improve their health and fitness. And in partner-ship with the South Florida Health Foundation and the Trust for Public Land, the department is providing En-hanced Fitness programs for seniors and implement-ing fitness zones (outdoor fitness equipment).

The parks department expects to concentrate its Redfields to Greenfields efforts in improving connec-tivity along the Biscayne-Everglades Greenway—a 42-mile multi-purpose trail that links communities in South Miami-Dade to Biscayne and Everglades National Parks. Nardi says they plan to create local TOPS (Transit Oriented Parks) around the stations and connect stops of existing and future transit lines, to parks in neighborhoods of health disparity.

“These projects [can] rescue vulnerable places and restore economic, social and physical health, assure a future of environmental and economic sus-tainability to restore community health, put people to

work, and jump-start the future,” Nardi wrote in an article in the February 2012 digital edition of Parks & Recreation (www.parksandrecreation.org) announc-ing the Redfields program.

“We’re in the process of mapping the entire area to see what’s needed,” Nardi says. “We have at least 12 parcels and are pursuing another 12. We’re con-stantly looking.”

Nardi says they expect to acquire tracts in a va-riety of ways: impact fees (one of the largest sourc-es), donations, fee simple acquisitions, through other agencies, and through the Parks Foundation of Mi-ami-Dade County.

Nardi points out two notable approaches to work-ing with open space to create parks. Transit-orient-ed parks are particularly exciting, Nardi says. “It’s a way to use existing infrastructure to support parks,” she says. “It’s one of the most meaningful approach-es. The Biscayne-Everglades Greenway will be the first time these two National Parks will be connected.

“It’s really about connecting a cross-section of people to parks,” she says.

phil haywarD is Editor of Parks & Recreation.

It all boils down to creating walkable

communities.—Maria Nardi,

Chief of Planning and Research, Miami-Dade County Parks,

Recreation and Open Spaces

ro

CC

o C

eo

tamiami trail Before and After (below)

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