Parks and Recreation System Master Plan Update (2016) parks_and_recreation_system_master_plan_update_oct | Page 151

C1. Open Space Structure
Frederick Law Olmsted, Sr. originally laid out a system consisting of three major parks
and connecting parkways which helped define the recreational and aesthetic qualities of parts
of the former City of Louisville. However, the parks and linking parkway approach was not
extended out into Jefferson County. Parkland acquisition in the County during the 1960s was
guided by the “Chain of Rainbow Parks” concept (developed in large part by former Parks
Director Charlie Vettiner), but the chain concept reflected the idea of a ring of parks in the
urbanizing fringe rather than one of physical linkage by parkways, greenways, or other open
space. At the time of the 1995 Plan, the County had accomplished important parkland
acquisitions, including McNeely Lake, Vettiner, Sun Valley, Waverly parks and the Jefferson
Memorial Forest, but the only major open space program implemented in the County was the
acquisition by the Community Improvement District (CID) of land for flood control along the
Ohio River and some of its tributaries. A primary goal of the 1995 Parks and Open Space Master
Plan was to set a clear direction of the development of an integrated and interconnected open
space system.
The concept of an integrated system implies that the various functions of open space
will be planned for simultaneously, with each part of the future open space system contributing
to multiple functional objectives. For example, land purchased for the Community Improvement
District (CID) lands were acquired with the primary objective of flood control with a secondary
objective of passive open space. A similar land acquisition program in the future could be
organized to serve many functions in addition to flood control, such as public recreation,
development of a pedestrian and bicycle network to provide an alternative to the use of the
automobile, conservation of natural habitat, and the provision of buffers to organize urban
development and to manage the quality of stormwater runoff. Each future open space,
greenway, or parkland acquisition would be conceived from an integrated, multi-functional
perspective.
The concept of an interconnected system implies that the various components of the
parks and open space system will be geographically linked. Olmsted established one type of
linkage with the parkways in Louisville. Two additional types of linkages are needed to complete
a fully interconnected system.
The 1995 Plan recommended a network of greenways or open space corridors ranging
in width from as little as 50 feet to over half-a-mile. The basis for this network was the greenway
system described in the Louisville & Jefferson County Multi-Objective Stream Corridor/Greenway
Plan (Final Plan dated 1995).⁴ These greenways were to serve functions such as recreation,
stormwater management, habitat conservation, and provision of an open space structure to
give coherence and identity to future development in Louisville. Most of the future community,
major urban, and regional parkland in Louisville should be located along the greenway network.
The development of the greenway system should seek to connect with as many of the existing
parks as possible.
130
V. THE PLAN | October 2016 Update