Imagine Your Parks 3 - Parks with a Purpose
In 2004, we teamed up with you to dream big. Frankly, the BREC park system was aging and offered East Baton Rouge Parish many small neighborhood parks and a few special use facilities including sports facilities, Bluebonnet Swamp Nature Center, Farr Park Equestrian Center and Magnolia Mound historic house. BREC’s leadership had a vision for much more and held more than 140 meetings with park visitors, stakeholders, partners and elected officials. The result was the first Imagine Your Parks plan which began the transformation of the system into one with 12 large community parks in every area of the parish, splash pads, dog parks, a growing trails system, larger playgrounds, new conservation areas and much more. The plan was updated again ten years later and now includes transformational projects such as the reimagination of the Zoo and Greenwood Community Park, expanded and air-conditioned recreation centers, the Lakes Project, the Bicycle/Pedestrian Master Plan and so many others. We are ecstatic that all of your input and our hard work brought a national Gold Medal back to East Baton Rouge for the third time in our history.
Now it is time to update the plan again. With 175 parks, there is much work still to be done not only to replace aging facilities and infrastructure, but to maintain and improve upon the additions to the system so that we keep our status as the number one park system in the nation.
See how IYP3 will guide BREC's next 10 years!