Marion County considers shifting parks standard from acreage to amenity-based measure

Marion County commissioners on May 1 discussed changing how the county measures parks service, weighing the long-standing acreage approach against a new amenity-focused or hybrid standard that would explicitly count playgrounds, courts and other facilities when judging park access.

Blair Knighton, a county staff member leading the comprehensive-plan workshop, said the county's current parks inventory counts 928 acres of county-managed parkland and uses a common benchmark of 2 acres per 1,000 residents as an example LOS. Knighton told the board those acreage calculations exclude lands the county does not manage (for example Ocala National Forest) and noted that large tracts such as Kearney Island and Horseshoe Lake can skew acreage-based metrics in low-population areas.

"This LOS is our LOS. This is what we come up with. This is what we want for our community," Knighton said, summarizing staff's recommendation to consider a combined acreage-and-amenity approach and to pilot amenity-based measures at a modest level before broader adoption.

Why it matters: Commissioners said rapid residential growth and the proliferation of private, amenity-rich developments have changed how residents access recreation. Vice Chairman Zalick pressed to ensure the comprehensive plan and the Land Development Code (LDC) explicitly require developers to provide usable open space or…