July 2014 - Parks & Recreation - 46

Reaching New Heights
NRPA and its partners work to renew Charlotte, North Carolina's Lincoln Heights
Neighborhood Park as the fifth project in NRPA's Parks Build Community initiative
By Danielle Taylor

eople working in the field of parks and recreation know the transformative power that a park can have on a community, but often, residents who
benefit from these public resources don't see the bigger picture. That's
not the case in the Lincoln Heights neighborhood in Charlotte, North Carolina, where locals have been clamoring for a park for years. When the first phase
of Lincoln Heights Neighborhood Park was built in 2011, community leaders
knew it was just the beginning. Now, NRPA and the Mecklenburg County Park
and Recreation Department have partnered with Playworld Systems, Greenfields Outdoor Fitness, Poligon by Porter Corp. and Cornilleau USA to bring a
new wave of recreation options to this economically disadvantaged community.
The redesigned park will open to the public October 16 in an event coinciding
with the 2014 NRPA Congress in Charlotte.
fountain and several picnic tables.
It's a definite boon to the neighborhood, which had previously been
identified as a play desert, but much
of the current landscape is underuti-

Charlotte's Lincoln Heights
Neighborhood Park is full of
potential, with nine acres of
landscape to play with in the
redesign.

Parks & Recreation

| J U LY 2 0 1 4 | W W W. N R PA . O R G

Mecklenburg County Park and Recreation Department

Originally opened in 2011 as a
9/11 memorial project, the nineacre linear park currently features
a playground, community garden,
gravel walking trail, bike rack, water

lized, and access is limited along
the park's long southern edge. Park
planners knew that for this park to
have maximum impact in its community, it would need to offer more
to attract residents. In October 2013,
NRPA and the Mecklenburg County Park and Recreation Department
identified Lincoln Heights Neighborhood Park as the ideal site for the
2014 Parks Build Community initiative, and together they began searching for partners, gathering feedback
from community leaders and developing a plan for the redesign.
" Lincoln Heights was chosen because of the great neighbors who live
there and their desire for years for a
park, " says Jim Garges, director of
Mecklenburg County Parks and Recreation. " They understood the value
of the park for their children and as a
place of pride to gather and see their
neighbors. "
" A park is an important asset for
any neighborhood, " says Thelma
Byers-Bailey, former president of the
Lincoln Heights Neighborhood Association. " We were really excited
about the first level of development,
but we always had in mind that this
was not the finished product. We're
very excited our children will have a
safe place to play. "
The new plan for the park, made possible through donations from project
partners and input from community

July 2014 - Parks & Recreation

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