New Park to Serve 3,400 Neighbors in Northwest Dallas

Dallas Greening Initiative to eventually bring 15 new parks to city

The city-owned land at 3728 High Vista will become a community greenspace as part of the Dallas Greening Initiative, which aims to alleviate park deserts in Dallas.

Park deserts are defined as areas without parks within a 10-minute walk. 

Trust for Public Land Texas state director Robert Kent says 27% of Dallasites live in park deserts, but the Dallas Greening Initiative will bring new access to 15,000 people.

The initiative will roll out 15 public parks — five per every 18 months — to bring a new greenspace to each council district. 

Trust for Public Land has been steering the project through data-based site selection and leading communication, design, and fundraising. It’s collaborating with the city’s park and recreation department, which will maintain the parks, and the Lyda Hill and Meadows Foundations, which have matched the city’s financial contributions to help bring properties to life.

Trust for Public Land has hosted a community meeting and a pop-up park during a seven-month engagement process to determine what amenities are valued by neighbors for the High Vista Drive park.

“We really wanted to get community members here to show them the program options that we made based on the feedback from the first meeting and survey,” Dallas Greening Initiative program manager Sofia Hernandez said.

The priorities that neighbors identified: seating, play elements for kids, lighting, and cameras. The team is now synthesizing the information from meetings and online feedback and will host a third meeting in the summer to present the final plan to community members.

The park, scheduled for completion in 2025, will be located next to the planned new Park Forest Branch Library. Park construction will begin in late 2024 or early 2025, and a library construction timeline has not yet been set.

Kent says the park’s location next to the library will allow families to use both in one visit for kids to release energy between library activities.

“I think that it really illustrates what we keep hearing from the public about co-locating these services that people want,” Kent said. “We don’t need to silo out libraries over here or parks over there; they could be side-by-side.”

People who live in neighborhoods with parks are 50% more active and have 2.5 years added to their life expectancy, Kent said.

“There’s so much research right now showing that if you have a park nearby, you’re healthier because you get out and use it,” Kent said.

From an environmental perspective, Kent also said neighborhoods with greenspaces can be up to 6 degrees cooler during the summer.

“We’re coming up on what will certainly be another hot summer, and the difference between 100 and 106 degrees is a huge swing, so being able to provide that amenity for neighbors is huge,” Kent said.

Kent describes parks as the “social fabric” of the city.

“We have to think about the community impact of parks,” he said. “Even just doing these pop-up parks, it’s been amazing to be there and have all these neighbors show up.”