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2003 Erie County Parks Master Plan

This Master Plan will serve as the basis for our Parks System for the next 20 years as we strive to enhance not only the Parks’ facilities but also recreational options and service delivery. This document provides this and future Administrations with a unique opportunity to “renew” and the challenge of commitment to one of our County’s greatest treasures. We must be prepared to fortify and ready a historic Erie County Parks System to embrace a promising future. We are confident this working document will help us achieve that goal.

Contained in the text to follow is a carefully constructed element of restructuring and reinvestment into the future of Erie County. With its overriding theme of “Renewal”, this Master Plan utilizes the historic richness of our County Parks System and develops that heritage as a foundation for the future. We must look at our Parks System as not only a quality of life resource that provides a wonderful opportunity for a myriad of recreational activities to all but also as an economic investment, a major attraction and a reason for new corporate relocation into Erie County.

At the very inception of this project, we established certain parameters that we felt were essential to any successful plan. The plan must be user friendly incorporating as many recreational opportunities as possible; it must be environmentally sound so as not to disrupt or destroy the sanctity of precious green space; and it must be financial feasible in this era of budget constraints and prudent use of taxpayer dollars. We feel this plan has met our criteria.

This document is a result of months of intense research utilizing a wide range of talent and opinion from professional planners, landscape architects, and parks personnel to private citizens, recreational and fraternal organizations and the business community. Hundreds of surveys were submitted and reviewed which had a profound influence upon the final product.

This Master Plan will serve as the basis for our Parks System for the next 20 years as we strive to enhance not only the Parks’ facilities but also recreational options and service delivery. This document provides this and future Administrations with a unique opportunity to “renew” and the challenge of commitment to one of our County’s greatest treasures. We must be prepared to fortify and ready a historic Erie County Parks System to embrace a promising future. We are confident this working document will help us achieve that goal.

Click on the links below to download sections of the Erie County Parks Master Plan.

Executive Summary

Table of Contents

Volume 1

Volume 2 - Park Specific Recommendations

  • Section 1 - Introduction
  • Section 2 - Heritage Parks
  • Section 3 - Waterfront Parks (Bennett, Buffalo River Parks, Niagara River Parks, Isle View, Wendt Beach)
  • Section 4 - Special Purpose Parks (Botanical Gardens, Elma Meadows, Grover Cleveland, Sprague Brook)
  • Section 5 - Conservation Parks (Hunters Creek, Eighteen Mile Creek, Boston Forest, Franklin Gulf, Beeman Creek, Scoby Dam)

Volume 3 - Recreational Trails (Introduction, Regional Waterfront Trail System, Typical Conditions, Recommendations for Phased Implementation)

Figures

  • Figure 2-1 - Regional Waterfront Trail System
  • Figure 3-1 - Recreational Trails - Typical Conditions - Off Road multi-use path
  • Figure 3-2 - Recreational Trails - Typical Conditions - On Road bike lane without parking
  • Figure 3-3 - Recreational Trails - Typical Conditions - On Road bike lane with parking
  • Figure 3-4 - Recreational Trails - Typical Conditions - On Road wide curb lane
  • Figure 3-5 - Recreational Trails - Typical Conditions - On Road shared lane
  • Figure 4-1 - Recreational Trails - Window Reference Map
  • Figure 4-2 - Recreational Trails - Clarence/Akron Area
  • Figure 4-3 - Recreational Trails - Depew/Lancaster Area
  • Figure 4-4 - Recreational Trails - East Aurora/Wales Area
  • Figure 4-5 - Recreational Trails - Hamburg/Orchard Park Area
  • Figure 4-6 - Recreational Trails - Boston/Colden/Holland Area
  • Figure 4-7 - Recreational Trails - Gowanda/Collins Area
  • Figure 4-8 - Recreational Trails - Springville/Sardinia Area
  • Figure 4-9 - Recreational Trails - Park to Park Linkages
  • Figure 4-10 - Recreational Trails - Urban Linkages
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