Brand on parks
We currently have a ratio of about 2.8 acres per 1,000 people. The 2025 General Plan expands that ratio a little to 3.0 to 1,000 people. The national average is closer to 5.0 acres per 1,000 people. When I was a member of the Fresno Planning Commission we reviewed several tract map applications in the Roosevelt/Sunnyside area. This particular area of Fresno required that all new developments earmark 5% for parks or green space or mitigate the cost. Through the efforts of all commissioners we were able to move forward a plan text amendment to the general plan to require that all future developments citywide have the same 5% requirement. This requirement encourages developers to develop more green space in their subdivisions including linear parks.
Fresno has grown to the point where we could use another regional park such as Woodward Park. Frankly speaking, I think it will be very difficult to achieve in the next four years with major budget shortfalls. In fact, any new park will be hard to finance. We need a long term strategy to solve this problem. We also need to be more creative in the development of parks and green space. A good example of innovative planning for green space is the new Francher Creek development in Southeast Fresno. Using the natural feature of Francher Creek, this development was built around that natural feature with connecting trails to the mixed use community.
Developing new parks will have to be financed primarily through developer fees. We need to seriously assess the fee structure to insure that enough revenues are generated for new parks. Grant monies can also be used to augment developer fees and should be seriously explored. The remaining problem is finding the money to maintain parks once we build them. The city is having a major problem now maintaining median islands, parks, and our streets. Special assessment districts may be one solution to providing an ongoing revenue stream to cover the cost of maintenance.