Community Input

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A City Park Plan Made with Community

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Community engagement was and remains at the center of the City Park planning process, which was launched in July 2023 and concluded in June 2025. The engagement framework was designed to be iterative, grounded in research, and informed by ongoing community feedback. A multi-layered, inclusive process revealed two central tracks that shaped the Plan’s development:

• Foundational Planning focused on improving the essential elements that keep a park healthy and support all visitors
• Placemaking Planning looked at the visitor experience place-by-place, enhancing what people already love and exploring opportunities to create new memories

True to the spirit of New Orleans, the engagement process embraced a familiar metaphor: Making Gumbo. And just like a great gumbo, the City Park Plan was built with layers of input, ingredients gathered from across the city and seasoned with care by the people who know and love the Park best. From high-school students to seniors, neighborhood leaders to environmental advocates, thousands of voices helped shape a bold and inclusive vision for the future of City Park.

This deep community driven process created multiple opportunities for New Orleanians to contribute including:

• A series of iterative community meetings held in City Park and around the city with approximately 1,950 participants
• Recurring focus groups with over 30 constituent groups, plus speaking at neighborhood and civic meetings
• A Community Fellows program that empowered 11 residents to serve as outreach ambassadors across all five council districts helping bring more voices into the process and made engagement more accessible
• An Ideas Youth Committee that brought together more than 80 young people (ages 15-25) from over 18 organizations, ensuring that young people shaped the future of the Park they’ll inherit
• Pop-up engagement events that made it easy for residents to share input in the neighborhoods where they live and work
• Virtual engagement tools, including digital surveys and open-comment period activities

What We Heard
At many meetings, a central activity invited participants to contribute to a symbolic “gumbo pot” – adding their priorities, dreams, and ingredients for a better City Park. From access and safety to ecology and culture, every contribution enriched the plan. From this input, two guiding frameworks emerged to shape the conversation and plan: The Givens and Core Intentions.

The Givens: What Every Great Park Should Have
These were recurring priorities identified early and often by the community. City Park Conservancy (CPC) adopted them as baseline standards to be embedded across all projects, so the community could dream bigger, knowing the basics are covered include restrooms, concessions/refreshments, information kiosk, seating, trash cans, drinking-water fountains, signage + wayfinding, lighting, safety/security, bike parking, bike-sharing stations, parking, accessible pedestrians + cyclists trails, shade, native plantings, invasives management, and rain gardens.

Core Intentions: Community Defined Values
These six foundational values, developed with the community, are at the heart of the City Park Plan:

• Present a unified and welcoming Park arrival experience
• Ensure the Park is safe, accessible, and convenient
• Promote landscape health and biodiversity through maintenance and stewardship
• Respect the history and cultural uses of the Park
• Create fun, healthy, and enriching opportunities for all ages
• Balance the Park’s budget, revenue, and affordability

The City Park Plan is not only informed by community feedback received over the last two years, but also by extensive analysis by the design team – including hydrologists, ecologists, transportation planners, and financial advisors. These inputs were synthesized into six planning areas, culminating in a final community meeting on June 25, 2025.

Next Steps: From Planning to Implementation
The City Park Plan will be up for approval to the CPC and the City Park Improvement Association boards in August of 2026, with phasing and implementation priorities focused on infrastructure, ecology, and access. CPC is launching a capital campaign, with the community’s voice continuing to shape programming, design, and storytelling.

Initial implementation highlights:

• Design of first major project zone (north side focus)
• Design and initial implementation of new wayfinding and signage
• Renovation and site improvements at the former Maintenance Corral
• Sidewalk and trailhead improvements across the Park
• Add restoration native test plots
• Improve The Givens – restroom repairs, new drinking fountains in certain areas, tree plantings, and meaningful reinvestment in Park infrastructure

As key projects continue into the design phase, so will public communication and opportunities to stay involved. We look forward to your continued involvement as we work together to care for this shared treasure.

Questions or feedback?
Email us at [email protected].