September 2014 - Parks & Recreation - 58

lic realm, including parks, originally
identified by Texas A&M Professor John Crompton. Those include
protecting drinking water, attracting
tourists, cleaning air, cultural and
historic preservation, facilitating
healthy lifestyles, enhancing real estate values and still others.
With the establishment of his firm,
Barth hopes to disseminate the idea
of smart growth and High-Performance Public Spaces© to as many
municipalities as possible. An important part of that mission is advancing parks and recreation, and the
professionals in that industry, as valuable contributors to creating viable,
workable and valuable public spaces. " In addition to their traditional
role in providing park and recreation
services, park and recreation professionals have a unique opportunity

Barth hopes to
disseminate the idea of
smart growth and HighPerformance Public
Spaces© to as many
municipalities as possible.
to provide leadership in community
sustainability and resiliency, " Barth
says. " Many park and recreation
departments control or influence as
much as 50 percent of a community's
land mass, giving them the opportunity to plan, design and manage their
public spaces to generate economic,
social and environmental benefits. "

David Barth will present his views on smart growth and High-Performance Public Spaces© October 14 in Charlotte as part of the 2014 NRPA Congress.

Another key to Barth's planning
and development mission is communicating the importance of conducting a comprehensive needs assessment of any public realm or parks
plan, backed by " statistically valid
quantitative techniques, including
random mail/telephone surveys and
GIS-based level-of-service analysis
of park acreage, facilities, programs,
access and quality, " he says. " [David L. Barth LLC] also uses NRPA's
PRORAGIS™ database to benchmark community park and recreation systems against other similar
communities. "
October 14, Barth will discuss
these ideas in depth, plus some of the
roadblocks he sees that might impact
the widespread adoption of smart
growth and High-Performance Public
Spaces©, as well as preservation and
inclusion of parks in development
plans. " Creating High-Performance
Park and Recreation Systems " will
take place from 11-11:45 a.m. in the
impressive glass room space located
on the exhibit hall floor. The six sessions planned there are intended to
attract directors and upper-level professionals who want to discuss cutting-edge issues and topics with their
peers and learn how others are dealing with similar challenges they are
facing. No CEUs will be offered and
session attendance will be purposely
limited to 50 and will be on a firstcome, first-served basis. For more information about all the exciting new
learning opportunities at Congress,
visit www.nrpa.org/Congress2014/
program-schedule.
Samantha Bartram is the Associate Editor
of Parks & Recreation Magazine (sbartram@
nrpa.org).

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September 2014 - Parks & Recreation

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of September 2014 - Parks & Recreation
