Parks can help communities stay healthy

A little of the green stuff goes a long way in master-planned communities. When new-home buyers look for a community, they consider how much community space is available. Parks and trails can support residents with medical benefits, ways to socialize, connections to neighborhoods and a breath of fresh air.

Parks can do wonders for residents.

In Las Vegas, one of the nation's fastest-selling master-planned communities, Summerlin, has more than 20 parks for its 100,000 residents.

"Nearly 30 percent of the community's total acreage has been designated as community space that includes passive and active open areas, recreation facilities, golf courses, the Summerlin Trail System, landscaped areas and natural preserved areas," the community's fact sheet at summerlin.com said.

Most of the parks are owned and maintained by the Summerlin Council, a nonprofit arm of the community association, but some are owned and maintained by Clark County.

The Summerlin parks include amenities such as desert gardens, open meadows, trails and paths, playgrounds, community centers, tennis courts, fields for soccer, baseball, softball and football, basketball and volleyball courts, swimming pools, picnic pavilions, toddler tricycle track, Bocce, shuffleboard, barbecue areas and splash pads.

"Nearly half of Americans get less than the recommended minimum amount of physical activity — more than one-third engage in no leisure-time physical activity at all. In the movement to improve the health and wellness of adults and children across the country, parks have a critical role to play," the Trust for Public Land's website,www.tpl.org, said.

Parks offer a place for exercise as well as a gathering place for social support in the effort to live a healthy lifestyle. Just spending an hour a day in a park can increase physical activity, decrease heart disease, depression and diabetes, while also improving self-esteem, life expectancy and immune systems, according to the Mayo Clinic.

Parks inside Anthem, a master-planned community in Phoenix, offer volleyball courts, skate park, a catch-and-release fishing pond, amphitheater and even a railroad through the area.

At Mountain's Edge in southwest Las Vegas, the community prides itself in its parks, which include Exploration Peak and Exploration Park. The two parks feature a 2,846-foot tall mountain with historic markers and a sundial on the route to the top of the mountain as well as a splash pad, playground, trails, replica of a Western town and Native American village replicas and an archaeology dig site and an amphitheater in the 80-acre Western-themed park at the base of the peak. At the nearby Nathaniel Jones park, a tot lot with a splash pad and lighted basketball court are the centerpieces around walking trails.

With obesity and diabetes on the rise, parks are a socially responsible way to provide health benefits to an entire community.

Parks allow communities to unite, encourage volunteerism, breed diversity, reduce crime and provide a place for children to play.

"Social bonds are improved when families recreate together and when seniors and individuals with disabilities are actively engaged in recreation activities. Recreation and park facilities help promote social bonds by uniting families, encouraging cultural sensitivity and supporting seniors and individuals with disabilities. Recreation provides us with family and community bonds that last a lifetime," said a study by the California Parks and Recreation Department.

With the great benefits green space brings to local communities, it's a no-brainer that developers focus much of their planning to a park system within master planned communities.