The Houston Parks Board, a nonprofit, is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year, HPB President and CEO Justin Schultz said.
The details
Over the years, the group has worked to “expand, improve and protect parks and green space in the Houston region,” according to the parks board website. Generally, the parks board builds and renovates trails and parks.
The organization also works on more than 170 miles of connected trails along the region’s bayous, Schultz said, which are part of one of the nation’s largest urban trail networks. At any given time, Schultz said the parks board is typically working on about 50 projects.
“Fifty years, in some ways, is a long time,” Schultz said. “In other ways, [it] is just a blink of an eye. What’s really exciting for me is that the mission that Houston Parks Board was founded with in 1976, and our mission today, is the same. Investing in Houston’s parks and green spaces to make Houston a more connected and beautiful city. And I think the simplicity of that is so amazing.”
Schultz said the parks board currently has three main priorities: continuing to build out the greenway system; neighborhood parks; and regional parks. These priorities focus on:
Adding 50 miles of trail to the existing network
Investing in about 180 of Houston's neighborhood parks
Building the Hill at Sims and MacGregor parks
Zooming in
Over the past 50 years, Schultz said the parks board has invested about $500 million in parks and green space. The money comes from the public sector, including the city and county, as well as philanthropic and corporate donors.
“All of the work we do are public-private partnerships,” Schultz said. “There is no project that we do that is just one source of money. The secret sauce that Houston Parks Board is able to bring is we have the expertise to oversee the design, the construction, the community engagement, the project management of these projects. But we also have the expertise to bring together all these different funding sources.”
To continue the parks board’s work, Schultz said public investment is crucial.
The Houston Parks and Recreation Department has funding “at a level that is much lower than all of our peers in Texas and in most cities across the country,” Schultz said.
“We need to make sure that our political leaders, our elected officials and frankly, the general population continues to push for more funding for parks. Because, ultimately, that is how we are going to get to the system that Houstonians deserve is to make sure we have adequate funding from both the private and the public sectors.”
