Review of Draft City of Heath Parks Master Plan

Last Tuesday, the City Council was presented with a copy of the draft Parks Master Plan. This will be review of that draft, and will attempt to point out some areas that can be improved.

The key problem with the park space/open space in Heath is the lack of it. This is the sum total of Heath parkland.

That is embarrassing for a City of Heath’s size and resources. In addition, the City owns other land, and the plan examines the opportunities to convert some of that to open space or parkland.

The City owns land along FM549 with at the intersection of Heathland Crossing. This land likely has little use except for open space as it is floodplain. This particular area immediately adjacent to Buffalo Creek, and floods severely following heavy rains. Flood plains are difficult to use as multipurpose property as any amenities will regularly be under water and soiled or destroyed by flood water.

The City also owns property on FM 740 south of downtown that serves as the utility operations of the city. With the expansion of the city, this property is likely to be be needed for utility reasons. The limited width of the property ~300 feet means that the front of the property would have limited utility for ball fields but could be a nice few acres pocket park with heavy tree planting and trail additions.

The City also owns property along 740 immediately adjacent to the elementary school at the southern edge of the city. This property is better drained than the FM 549 property but is rather limited in its usefulness. Much like the other FM 740 property, with a heavy planting of trees and trail additions, it could be a useful addition to the playground currently at the elementary school.

The City also owns a surprising amount of land in between the southern Corner of FM 740 and Hubbard Drive. This open space can serve as a spine for the Southern Heath residents to access the comprehensive parks located around the Town Center without the need to walk along busy highways. This strip of property is probably the most ideally situated property in the City of for trail use and shows what foresight can provide.

This City also owns 100 acres of land adjacent to Rockwall High School. Unfortunately, a large portion of this property is slated for development by the city. This seems extremely misguided as it sets the city in competition with private landowners. In addition, if there is need for additional commercial property within the city limits, there are plenty of landholders that could supply the necessary property. The proposed ball fields and sports complex for the land slated to not be developed does look quite good, and is centrally located.

After reviewing the land owned by the city, it is apparent that more park land is necessary, and that there is effectively no open space or wild space preservation potential in any of those properties, save the FM 549 property which can essentially only function as open space. The highest priority of the City with regard to open space and parks should be to acquire open space while it is still available and relatively inexpensive and to change zoning requirements to encourage preservation of open space in remaining developments. With an aggressive land acquisition program and a few simple tweaks to existing development requirements it may be possible to preserve 25% of Heath as park land or open space for around $10 million, half of the price of the recent CIP program. I will detail that plan later.