September 2011 - Parks & Recreation - 57

empower communities and connect people of all ages to
their local parks. And they are certainly not going away any
time soon. In fact, with local park agencies around the country experiencing budget woes, park-supporting citizen
groups are seeking out a variety of different types of community-built playground designers-from architects specializing in natural and discovery playgrounds, to in-house
consultants at traditional playground equipment manufacturers. And, perhaps more than at any time in the past 20
years, volunteers are taking the lead in funding, building,
and maintaining these many different styles of playgrounds.

jenny munro/ flickr

New Options, New Challenges
Ken Kutska, director of the International Playground Safety Institute and a member of IPEMA's Voice of Play, says
companies and nonprofits specializing in community-built
playgrounds are, in general, doing a better job these days
of training facilitators and structuring a sound planning
process. He adds that communities have several options
for deriving the benefits of the barn-raising model-especially by placing greater emphasis on the planning stage
than on the actual installation of a playground project.
" Put together a planning team, " Kutska advises. Along
with input from families and children, he says, " include
a child development expert, a representative from the
manufacturer, a professional playground planner, an accessibility specialist, and an operations/maintenance
park staffer....And remember, the goal is more than to
create a playground. It is to maintain and inspect that
playground throughout its lifetime. " A process led by
such a diverse and knowledgeable team will focus on
more than cost, Kutska says. Instead, a master plan will
emerge-one that is " the result of weighing alternatives
and making educated decisions. "
Thompson agrees, adding that an advance study of park
users is also essential. " Many volunteer-built efforts, she
says, put most of their resources into equipment for 5-to-12year-olds. We find that the kids using the playgrounds are
actually most often in the 2-to-5-year-old age group. " So,

" Since it's been open, it's been a
community hot spot, " says Melissa Summerfield, one of the project's organizers. " And
the building process itself was phenomenal.
Businesses sent teams of employees wearing company t-shirts, and Home Depot even
sent officials out to be a part of it. "
Did FORParks undertake the project
to save on installation costs? No, insists
Summerfield-while the county welcomed the friends group's help for budg e t a r y r e a s o n s . R a t h e r, f o r t h e
volunteers, the project was more about

while the equipment might be top-notch and developmentally appropriate, it is not well suited to the children trying to
use it. " Plan for who is actually going to be using the park. "
Kutska offers an additional reminder: While communities can be successful in volunteer-led builds, Americans
with Disabilities Act [ADA] compliance is adding a whole
new aspect to playground planning. " The biggest challenge for most of us going forward, " Kutska says, " will
be accessible routes and barrier-free park access....And
with most small community [volunteer efforts], the focus
is on equipment, not accessibility. He catalogs a list of
compliance mandates, including the requirements for
ramping with vertical rises over a half-inch. " The main
thing is, it's not enough to put in accessible equipment.
We have to get people to each accessible component. "
And that requires involvement from people knowledgeable about the new accessibility rules.
Kutska, like McGovern and Thompson, believes that
even with such new challenges, park agencies, play
equipment manufacturers, and volunteer groups can
work together successfully to create safe, fun, accessible playgrounds. " We have a lot of public opportunity
with community-built playgrounds, " Kutska concludes.
" But you've got to have a plan. "
Maureen Hannan is Senior Editor of Parks &

Recreation.

coming together as a community and
making something spectacular happen.
Stan Wagner, vice-president of the FORParks board, adds, " We wanted to see
who would come forward and what collection of skills we'd get. " Wagner ticks
off a list of serendipitous local talent discoveries. The museum artist who crafted
the dinosaur print sculptures for the
park, the planners and construction
workers, the PR and marketing whizzes.
Ultimately, the project really had a
more ambitious aim than just to construct
www.NRPA .ORG

a playground, Wagner says. FORParks
was considering the future of that
pristine 100-acre park. " We knew we
needed something to draw people to the
park, " he explains. " For all the features we
wanted to see-amphitheater, shade areas, picnic pavilions-we had to have
something to first make it a destination. "
And, when new visitors arrive and see
the marvelous playground, Wagner states
proudly, they usually say, 'Wow-I had no
idea that this was all here.' "
-Maureen Hannan
SEPTEMBER 2011

Parks & Recreation 55

September 2011 - Parks & Recreation

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