Parks popping up around Knoxville to meet rising demand

Thursday evening, Knox County Parks and Recreation held a meeting with residents in Halls.

The county is planning a new park just off Emory Road near the Halls Crossroads.

"We want to talk to people about what their priorities are, are there certain characteristics or themes they'd like to see in the park," said Knox County Parks and Recreation Director Doug Bataille. "Then we'll come back later, have some concepts for them to look at and review."

The department says the park is part of a trend sprouting up around town.

In the past decade, Knox County has added about 500 acres of parks and green spaces.

The most recent 150-acre addition for the county, Schumpert Park, brought the total of Knox County park land to more than 3,000 acres.

It's a convenience for nearby residents that brought a major win to the soccer program.

"We went from 500 kids one season and about 2 years later we were at about a thousand," Bataille said.

A similar growth is taking place inside city limits.

"The last 5 or 10 years, the city has added a lot of additional acreage," said Knoxville Parks and Recreations Director Joe Walsh.

One of the latest projects is the new downtown dog park, scheduled for completion in 60 days.

Part of the reason more parks are popping up around town has to do with supply. Open land is simply getting harder to find, so parks and recreation officials are more likely to snatch up open spaces when they become available.

City and county recreation officials point to several factors driving demand.

"More and more Knoxvillians are living in condos, apartments, don't have yards," Walsh said.

"Recently with the economy, we've seen increases across the board in use of our park system. A lot of it's because people can't take that big vacation and are staying closer to home," Bataille said.

They also point to the economic benefits for the area.

"[Parks] are very important both to keep people here and recruit new business into town," Bataille said.