Enough park land for every resident? Which suburban districts meet the national standard

With just 138 acres of property, the Park Ridge Park District's footprint is one of the smallest in the suburbs.

The district serves nearly 40,000 people, though, which means there are 3.5 acres for every 1,000 residents.

That's well short of a National Recreation and Park Association benchmark of 10 acres for every 1,000 residents. Park district acreage includes parks, playgrounds, pools, ball fields, community centers and any undeveloped open space.

"There is a high demand for programs and facilities, so it's challenging to accommodate everybody," said Margaret Holler, the district's communications manager. "We still look for ways to grow, like changing our amenities or intergovernmental agreements with other agencies."

A Daily Herald analysis of 52 suburban park districts shows 31 meet the national per capita acreage benchmark, while 21 others fall short.

Like Park Ridge, many of those suburban districts that are below the national standard are older communities where requirements for residential developers to donate land for parks or a cash equivalent necessary for the district to purchase and equip new park land were not always in place.

Besides Park Ridge, Sugar Grove, Hanover Park, Warrenville and Des Plaines all report fewer than 7 acres of park land per 1,000 residents. On the other end of the spectrum are Cary, Crystal Lake, St. Charles, Mundelein and Geneva, all with more than 22 acres per 1,000 residents.

The per capita acreage benchmark is just one measure park districts use to justify programming and amenities, but experts also note that districts have other methods of determining a communities' recreational and open space needs.

"There is not a one-size-fits-all approach or standard when it comes to acreage per resident, because open space and recreation needs are unique to each community," said Bobbie Jo Hill, a spokeswoman for the Illinois Association of Park Districts.

Arlington Heights falls just below the national standard at 9.6 acres for every 1,000 residents.

"Every community is really different, so you have to analyze the needs of the entire community," said Carrie Fullerton, the Arlington Heights Park District's executive director.

Administrators and the park board there are expected to wrap up a seven-year comprehensive plan for the district this fall that Fullerton said will provide a "road map" for all future development and guide any growth.

And despite falling shy of the national acreage standard, Fullerton believes the district has always been able to meet residents' needs.

"Demographic shifts and staffing are always going to be a challenge for park districts," she said. "The population of our youth fluctuates, so there are times when we have plenty of soccer fields, for instance, and other times when we could use a little more."

Many park districts lease land to cover programming needs, many directors said.

The St. Charles Park District has one of the highest acreage levels per capita at 29.6 acres per 1,000 residents, but it still needs to lease nearly 350 acres from other taxing bodies to provide all the amenities and programming district leaders believe are necessary.

"In park planning, you're looking at placement of parks to residents, and sometimes you may not have the land needed, but the municipality or a forest preserve district might," said Holly Cabel, the St. Charles Park District's director of parks and recreation. "You're also looking for partnerships with towns and schools with existing amenities."

District leaders are also cognizant of overlapping amenities with the private sector.

"You want to be careful about competing," Cabel said.

The Cary Park District leads the 52 suburban districts with the most acres per 1,000 residents, at 39.9. Executive Director Dan Jones said that figure is a draw.

"The amount of open space we have I think people see that as a value," he said. "I think that's a reason why people come live here."

The Cary district owns 864 acres of land, some of which is waiting to be developed, Jones said.