Rejuvenating Neighborhoods and Communities Through Parks—A Guide To Success www.NRPA.org National Recreation and Park Association © 2011 All Rights Reserved 28 In partnership with the parks and recreation department, the Dunwoody Preservation Trust presented the Brook Run Master Plan to Dekalb County government and gained full support for implementation The plan divided the park into three themed areas: Nature’s Way, The Arts, and Play Large copies of the plans were mounted and placed throughout the park The planners and the community jointly decided that a traditional playground would not be built, but rather that the play area include elements recommended for The Arts and Nature’s Way, such as a space for an outdoor theater, a running brook, and an accessible tree house The neighborhood input resulted in a $2 million award-winning children’s adventure garden, which was filled with families all day long—in a once-dormant space that was an eyesore in the community Community input and involvement did not end there Phase two accommodated the request for a skateboard park The design firm held a charette in Brook Run Park to discuss the plans and desired features This public forum attracted members of Dunwoody Preservation Trust, teenagers and young adults, and parents of children interested in skating in the park The charette also attracted bicycle motocross (BMX) riders They shared ideas on how to design the skateboard facility so they, too, could use it without damaging it The design firm embraced the importance of public participation and carried it to a new level by posting the draft designs of each feature of the facility online for comments of the skaters and bikers Between phase one and phase two, another action group formed in the community and approached county leaders to build a dog park Although that suggestion was less popular, county leaders approved the construction of an off-leash area in Nature’s Way, and the Friends of the Dog Park is responsible for its maintenance Consultants are now required to post the proceedings of the public meetings and copies of the draft designs online for citizen review and comment The successes of Brook Run Park started with the involvement of the public in the development of the 2000 Strategic Park Master Plan Many of the stakeholders worked to secure support for passage of a $125 million park bond for land acquisition and development In 2005, the citizens of DeKalb County passed a similar park bond in 2005 of $97 million t…o continue to renovate and modernize the park Participatory Action Research In addition to the tried-and-true approaches for gathering community input for park planning, there are newer methods for generating information, such as participatory action research (PAR) The insights generated through this emerging approach are quite useful for neighborhood projects A number of PAR techniques were used in the Marvin Gaye Park project This form of qualitative research focuses on receiving input and ideas from those people closest to the project but also from individuals who often are not part of this process More Information About PAR Incite is a national organization that widely shares information about participatory action research (PAR) in a toolkit featured on its Web site. It explains that the PAR approach: • Does not feature one specific method for generating insight but more closely resembles a philosophy for securing such information and insight • Has its roots in empowering marginalized communities, such as abused women, disabled persons, and other groups, where true insight is difficult to garner using traditional methods • Enables the people whose lives are intimately involved with the issue and project to become more actively involved and influential in the process of resolution • Garners insight that holds great value for planning of a project http://www.incite-national.org/media/docs/5614_toolkitrev-par.pdf
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