Austin Parks and Recreation Department
Our Parks, Our Future Long Range Plan has received a Public Outreach Award from the American Planning Association (APA) Texas Chapter (APATX). The Public Outreach Award celebrates how planning improves a community's quality of life. The APATX Awards Selection Committee evaluated nominees based on originality and innovation, engagement, implementation and effectiveness, quality, and promotion of planning. View the comprehensive list of
2021 Texas Planning Award Recipients. The award will be presented at the APATX Chapter Conference in Ft. Worth on November 3.
Our Parks, Our Future was led by WRT, a national planning and design firm, and was funded in part through contributions from Austin Parks Foundation. The future of Austin Parks and Recreation is impacted by a multitude of forces, trends and shifts including unprecedented population growth, increasing reliance on private and philanthropic funding, and the emergence of best practices in sustainable park development and management.
The planning effort began with inventory, evaluation of park and facilities, an analysis of demographic data, and trends and industry standards for parks. Public outreach played a critical role throughout the process with in-depth engagement of citizens, park supporters, conservancies, neighborhood associations, nonprofit organizations, and public partners. The result is a blueprint to guide the growth and development of Austin's park and recreation system for the next 10 years.
About WRT WRT is a team of planners, urban designers, architects, and landscape architects, working across scales to create enduring, transformative, communities, parks, and open spaces. WRT previously worked with the City of Austin on the award-winning Imagine Austin Comprehensive Plan and led the consultant team in support of PARD for Our Parks, Our Future. The consultant team included: WRT, PROS Consulting, Studio Balcones, Civic Arts, Adisa Communications, The Trust for Public Land, and ETC Institute.
About the American Planning Association The American Planning Association and its professional institute, the American Institute of Certified Planners, are dedicated to advancing the art, science and profession of good planning – physical, economic, and social – so as to create communities that offer better choices for where and how people work and live. Members of APA help create communities of lasting value and encourage civic leaders, business interests, and citizens to play a meaningful role in creating communities that enrich people's lives. APA has offices in Washington, D.C., Chicago, Ill, and Shanghai, China. For more information, visit its website at
Planning.org.
