Academic literature on the topic 'Parkland dedication'

Education has been an unusually busy beat for journalists in 2018. Maria Ferguson reflects on three major stories: the shooting in Parkland, Florida; the inflated graduation rates in D.C. schools, and the poor public performance of Education Secretary Betsy DeVos. These stories reveal the value of dedicating time and resources to education reporting.

As part of local governments’ mandate to regulate for the “health, safety, and general welfare” of their residents, many have included a parkland dedication exaction on new development in their sub-division regulations. The rules governing the magnitude of the dedication were established in 1994 by the U.S. Supreme Court in Dolan v City of Tigard. The Court ruled there must be “rough proportionality” between a dedication exaction and the projected new demand from a development. The ruling requires a local jurisdiction to be proactive in quantifying the justification for the magnitude of a dedication it imposes, but the Court offered no guidance on how the quantification should be done. This study’s two objectives were: (i) to investigate the extent to which cities’ ordinances comply with the Supreme Court’s ruling, and (ii) to identify best practices among cities’ ordinances relating to operationalizing the “rough proportionality” principle. Parkland dedication ordinances were analyzed from 73 Texas cities, supplemented by insights from those of 29 large cities outside Texas. In 65 of the Texas ordinances where “rough proportionality” comparisons could be made, the analyses found percentage under-dedications ranging from 9% to 1,250%. In defiance of the Court’s ruling, almost two-thirds of the ordinances showed no evidence of using an empirical quantitative method to establish “rough proportionality.” Many of these ordinances provided a service level ratio, but it appeared to be arbitrarily determined. These findings are especially egregious in Texas, since state law requires that the quantification of “rough proportionality” be certified as being appropriate by a professional engineer. Three models of best practice that used empirical methods to derive rough proportionality and met the Supreme Court guidelines are identified, described, and illustrated. Under-dedication often reflects the reluctance of elected officials to antagonize the development community. Thus, four strategies are offered to facilitate their efforts to impose a substantive exaction that relieves the burden on taxpayers, while demonstrating sensitivity to any protests arising from members of the development community.

The link between physical inactivity and poor health outcomes is well established. Older adults are especially at risk for many health conditions, and are one of the most inactive populations in Canada. Increasing levels of neighbourhood greenness has shown a positive relationship with walking and exercise behaviours, which in turn affects both mental and physical health. Currently in Ontario, the provincial Planning Act outlines the process of parkland dedication that individual municipalities are responsible for carrying out. This policy brief will discuss the inadequacies of the current system in effectively creating greenspace for older adults, and will propose several recommendations to resolve these issues.

The study explored whether fast-growth cities in Texas were able to retain their existing level of park supply over a 12-year period between 2008 and 2020. Directors of 50 Texas cities were surveyed in each of those years. Analyses showed the ratio of parks per thousand people was significantly lower in 2020 than in 2008. Correlation results suggested the higher the rate of growth, the more challenging it is for cities to retain their existing levels of service. The negative impact of growth was significantly mitigated in cities that had a parkland dedication ordinance. The results suggest there is a significant probability there will be a decline in parks provision in fast-growth cities, but the finding that there was no decline in 30% of cities in this sample offers a source of encouragement.

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1996.
Typescript. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 56-58).