Orange County NC Website
Another important part of park planning involves the recreation and park requirements <br /> commonly used in Land Use Ordinances. A community's total recreation inventory comes <br /> from what the general tax base can afford plus the recreation lands or facilities provided by <br /> Private development. Therefore, the recreation sections of the Land Use Ordinances for all <br /> three jurisdictions were reviewed by the Recreation and Park Work Group. <br /> Park Standards <br /> • Please refer to Appendix 1 for a full comparison of previously adopted park <br /> classifications for each jurisdiction. Park types are classified into six types; Regional, <br /> District, Community,Neighborhood, Mini Park, and Linear Park. <br /> • There are national and state standards for park classification and all three jurisdictions <br /> considered both of these standards in compiling their local standards. Appendix 3 shows <br /> graphical examples of each park type. <br /> • The jurisdictions' standards are established using ratios of acreage to population which <br /> have been established for each type of park. Most of the standards are very similar. <br /> There appears to be no overriding factor against making the standards the same. <br /> • A linear park or greenway is an area where conformity to a standard is difficult, if not <br /> impossible. This type of park is usually predicated upon the need for stream buffering, <br /> transportation, scenic hiking, etc. A more serious effort would be fruitful in developing <br /> standards for the type of construction on common greenways so that a paved trail does <br /> not end at one jurisdiction's limits and a beaten path extend along the same corridor into <br /> the adjoining jurisdiction. <br /> • Most of the information above relates to the development of standards for public <br /> recreation facilities. These are "population driven", and national and state averages are <br /> used as a base line upon which to determine local standards. Facility standards are <br /> detailed in Appendix 2. Program demands unique to one locale may drive a standard to a <br /> higher or lower level than national and state averages. <br /> • All three jurisdictions considered UNC-CH and school facilities but did not factor them <br /> into the standards. UNC-CH has many recreation and park amenities such as the <br /> Botanical Gardens, Finley Golf Course, Kenan Stadium and other recreation facilities. <br /> National and state standards do not reflect these types of quasi-public facilities. The <br /> Page 4 <br />