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9—8 Orange County Comprehensive Parks and Recreation Master Plan CHAPTER 9 - What Does It All Mean: Summary and Findings from Inventories, Research, and Input 9 D. Service Areas and Service Delivery Defining service areas for parks in a county system is a bit more-complicated than for urban municipalities. With closely-packed neighborhoods and generally similar ranges of housing density, the use of driving time or distance as a service area definition is a valid determinant of what areas can reasonably be served. Many of these areas are walkable or have access to a comprehensive public transportation. In Orange County’s case, outside of the towns, population densities and the location of residential subdivisions is considerably more sporadic and less-dense. Only limited public transportation along major roadways is in existence or planned for the next 10-15 years. The road network is arterial, with side rural roads and private roads. In some parts of the county the road network is more developed and features good connections in all directions. In other areas, roadways are more dispersed and may only traverse certain directions, requiring trips tangential or away from the ultimate destination before reach- ing a main arterial roadway. These rural areas of the county continue to see moderate residential subdivision growth, but the areas are projected to remain rural for the plan period through 2030. As such, a 5-mile radius from a given park site in rural Orange County may be a five minute drive for someone along an arterial roadway, or a 15-minute drive for someone who lives down a long private lane in a more sparsely-populated area. Service areas cannot easily be defined by distance, and travel time is highly variable. In 1988, the Recreation and Parks Master Plan and subsequent reports examined to some degree trans- portation patterns and networks in attempting to define the four “districts” within which park needs were identified (see Map 9-1). However, as seen in Section 6 of that plan, the recommended location of the four District Parks was based primarily on existing open space and water bodies, and opportu- nities with public lands or other public or quasi-public open spaces. Of the four district park locations identified at that time, two were proposed to be located with new reservoirs, one near Duke Forest and the County landfill in the Eubanks Road corridor, and only one (northern Orange) in an area without public open space or State parkland nearby. Therefore, it can be said that in the 1988 plan, opportunity and existing public lands was the ultimate driving factor in the location of district parks, and not driving time and geographic distances. For a point of reference, however, Map 9-2 shows the location of the County’s current parks and the proposed “service area” radius if this were to be the locational determinant. Map 9-3 shows these parks, plus the service areas for planned new parks in the County’s Capital Investment Plan. As can be seen, there is substantial overlap using this definition, and almost all of the county is covered. Map 9-4 shows the regional park coverage, which is even more extensive. Another very different factor that should be taken into consideration in determining the location and service areas of future facilities is one that is not physical – the desires and needs of the communities within Orange County, the opportunities to enhance public health and economic development, and the social consideration of accessibility to low-income and at-risk households. These important considera- tions may not easily be mapped, but they are important to the recreational, natural resource, public health and social goals of the County. 102