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Memorial Park Master Plan Approved by Houston City Council

Published on 4/14/2015
The detailed plan to restore, improve and maintain Memorial Park, the largest and most heavily used green space in the city, focuses on shifting several ballfields to the park's northeast corner, increasing parking spaces by 30 percent and creating two land bridges spanning Memorial Drive to reconnect the park's major sections.

The plan, which could see up to $300 million invested, also would restore the park's ecosystem, which was greatly harmed in the 2011 drought, through ambitious plans to add fire suppression and irrigation systems and improve drainage to end serious erosion problems in parts of the park.

The plan was developed through months of public meetings, surveys and workshops with park users, and incorporated research from local experts on such matters as soil ecology, hydrology, archaeology, history and traffic. It was created by the city's Parks and Recreation Department, the Memorial Park Conservancy and the Uptown tax increment reinvestment zone, which committed $3.2 million in financing for the plan.

The Uptown zone also will commit up to $120 million toward the envisioned infrastructure projects, such as drainage and parking improvements. Much of the rest will be raised from private donors by the conservancy.

As with most such master plans, the blueprint defined goals for what the park should become over time, if and when funding becomes available to build the things it proposes. Next, officials will design the projects, estimate how much they will cost, and decide how and when to apply public and private dollars to them.