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8—1 Orange County Comprehensive Parks and Recreation Master Plan CHAPTER 8 - Economic, Health and Environmental Impacts of Parks and Recreation 8 Economic, Health and Environmental Impacts of Parks and Recreation Background The provision of parks and open spaces, and of recreation programs, events and opportunities, offer a variety of benefits to the health safety and general welfare of Orange County residents. Among these are benefits to the county’s economy, to the overall public health, and to the local and regional natural environment. Evidence of those public benefits is described below in two papers written by consultants from the University of North Carolina – Greensboro, supplemented with complementary information received by DEAPR staff. A. Economic Benefits of Parks, Recreation and Open Space A 2011 study by the Trust for Public Land (TPL) determined the return on North Carolina’s investment in land conservation through its four conservation trust funds. The TPL study found that every $1 invested returns $4 in economic value from the kinds of natural resource goods and services, such as water quality protection by wetlands and air pollution removal by forests. The study did not, however, include how investments in land conservation benefit the economy through jobs, taxes, tourism, and other revenue.1 Locally, a comprehensive review of those benefits was conducted for Orange County by a team of researchers from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Their findings, as well as the national research mentioned previously, support the idea that although county budgets need to be cut during economic downturns, “…preserving parks and recreation funds can actually reduce the need to allocate funding to other public departments.”2 The benefits that parks, recreation, and open space have on individuals and communities are well documented. Numerous studies have examined the positive impacts that parks and recreation participa- tion has on a person’s physical and psychological health and wellbeing. In recent years, increased research has focused on the impact of parks, recrea- tion, and open space on a community’s economy. “At the bottom line, parks are a good financial investment for a community.”3 The following are ways that parks, recreation, and open space positively benefit the economic health of our cities, states, and country. Enhances residential property values Research consistently shows parks have a positive impact on the value of properties located close by. Studies further demon- strate that many people will pay more for a home that is located- near a park, a nature preserve, or community open space. Economists call this influence hedonic value while real estate agents and homebuilders call it ‘location, location, location.’ Determining the correlation between parks and property values is not a recent phenomenon. According to a report of the American Planning Association, “From 1856 to 1873 he [Frederick Law Olmsted] tracked the value of property adjacent to Central Park, in order to jus- tify the $13 million spent on its creation. He found that over the 17-year period there was a $209 million dollar increase in the value of property impacted by the park.”4 85