Authored By Alina Hunter-Grah

Chattanooga is taking a step toward having a park within a 10-minute walk of all residents thanks to a new grant from the National Recreation and Park Association. The $40,000 grant is a part of the national 10-Minute Walk Campaign started by the NRPA, The Trust for Public Land and the Urban Land Institute to support city planning efforts to better connect residents to city parks. "Parks play a critical role in the health and well-being of our communities,” Chattanooga Mayor Andy Berke said in a prepared statement. “Chattanooga is proud to be connecting all of our residents to local parks. From greenways and playgrounds to hiking and biking trails, Chattanoogans should possess options for activities and community gatherings."

The city's Open Spaces department will use the money to help create an updated master plan for city parks. To do this, the department is considering hiring a consultant to do analysis on the state of the city's parks. The city will be looking for information about how many people are within a 10-minute walk of a park and how they could increase it. "Some consultants could identify that there's a great park nearby, but no way for the neighborhood to get there," Park Planner Akosua Cook said. These sorts of discoveries would then be plugged into the city's park master plan as projects for the city to complete. Another use for the grant the city is weighing is a summit that would bring park stakeholders throughout the city together in order to help establish a consensus over the parks' direction for planning purposes. "The end product for us is a road map for how we should make some improvements," Open Spaces Director Travis Kazmierzak said. The grant ends in April 2019. Alina Hunter-Grah is a contributing writer. She is a graduate of The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, where she received a bachelor’s degree in communication with a minor in political science. Alina has over three years of journalism experience including time spent with CNN and 2nd & Church, a magazine based in Nashville, Tennessee. You can reach Alina at ahuntergrah@gmail.com or on Twitter @alinahuntergrah.