The city of Houston wants to update how park funding is distributed throughout the city to ensure that parks in certain districts receive the money needed for critical needs, projects and development.
As of early March, the city has 21 park sectors. The sector that receives the most amount of funding includes River Oaks, Upper Kirby and Montrose neighborhoods, with $21 million. On March 3, during its monthly Budget and Fiscal Affairs Committee meeting, Parks and Recreation Department Director Kenneth Allen presented the disparities in park funding and distribution.
Some background
Since 2007, the city has collected over $100 million for a Parks and Recreation Dedication fund across 21 park sectors. The funding has been used to acquire land and develop and improve park facilities to meet the needs of the city’s growing population, Allen said.
“Structure imbalance exists between our park sectors,” he said. “53.5% of total park dedication fund revenue is generated just by five out of 21 park sectors; that’s pretty amazing.”
Increased funding would help with improving parks, not just regular maintenance, such as replacing lights with LED lights, Allen said.
By the numbers
There is also disparity among the top five sectors, with Sector 14, the west side of the loop, bringing in $21 million.
The top five sectors include:
Sector 7: south side ($7.2 million)
Sector 9: west side, south of I-10 ($7.1 million)
Sector 18: west side, outside of Beltway South I-10 ($7.1 million)
Sector 14: west side, Inner Loop ($21 million)
Sector 12: northwest, Inner Loop ($10.9 million)
“As a department, we want to call attention to the need to balance park investment across all 21 sectors,” Allen said.
The remaining 16 sectors are underfunded, Allen said, and the city has an opportunity to bring “park sector revenue redistribution” and an opportunity to achieve system-wide balance.
“Overall, this analysis makes clear the significant progress still needed,” Allen said. “Only six park sectors currently meet the access standard of our urban park system.”
The city of Houston has 21 park sectors within the city. Five of them have over 50% of funding. (Courtesy city of Houston)
Breaking it down
The Parks and Recreation Department is recommending that the city update its open space ordinance to provide 30% or more of the park dedication fund revenue to be deployed citywide. The current ordinance only allows the funding to be distributed in the sector where it was collected.
This would mean that when a developer is issued a permit for a project or receives a certificate of occupancy, they could pay a per-dwelling-unit fee between $700 and $1,260.
“This flexibility will enable the city to respond to the most critical needs, advanced priority projects and acquire land necessary to develop park facilities,” Allen said. “This will ensure access to quality parks citywide.”
However, there would be exceptions. Under the proposed ordinance, there could be exceptions if a developer had a private park, or dedicated parkland in lieu of the fee, or a combination of the two.
What happens next?
The Parks and Recreation Department will present the proposal to the city's planning commission in April. Council is expected to vote on it in June.
