How Parkland Dedication Ordinances and Impact Fees Are Shaping Park Access Across the Country

Released December 2024! Across the United States, more than 100 million people — including 28 million children — do not have access to a high-quality park within a 10-minute walk of home. This might appear to be a problem for city park and recreation agencies to solve, but new research from Trust for Public Land (TPL) suggests local agencies are not the primary actors in acquiring or opening new local parks. Instead, city planning and economic development agencies — which oversee residential development policies — and real estate developers are the key driver of parkland acquisition and creation. A TPL review of park and greenway openings between 2018 and 2023 across 10 representative U.S. cities finds that across 76 openings in these cities, 67 percent were built on land acquired from real estate developers via municipal requirements for either land donations or fees to fund the acquisition of park space needed for residents of their new development. There are two primary ways cities are acquiring parkland as part of real estate development: parkland dedication ordinances and impact fees. This presentation will share an overview of these policy mechanisms and summarize how cities can structure these policies to ensure the park access gap doesn't widen.

Learning Objectives:
1. Participants will understand how development policies (parkland dedication ordinances and impact fees) are shaping park access across the country.
2. Participants will understand the fundamentals of development policies, i.e., parkland dedication ordinances and impact fees, as well as how these policies are shaping parkland acquisition and development across the country.
3. Participants will understand how development policies (dedication ordinances and impact fees) can be structured to mitigate inequitable outcomes.

This talk will be available for 1 year from release date!