Parks and Recreational Facilities

Current Conditions

There are 32 recreation centers with 18 gyms, three indoor and 16 outdoor pools, three arts and craft centers, five tennis centers and other special recreational facilities, such as J. A. White Junior Training Golf Course, Southside Sports Complex, and Lake Allatoona Resident Camp.

Community Centers

The City's recreation centers are grouped into two basic categories:

  •  Fourteen recreation centers without a gym
  •  Eighteen recreation centers with a gym and one or more activities

Several shortcomings of the City's community recreation center system are evident from the pattern of service areas for the centers.  One problem is that Atlanta has built many small centers close together creating overlapping service areas and increased maintenance and programming costs.  In addition, significant gaps exist in service softball, football, track and field, baseball and cheerleading.  Soccer programs are being developed.  The Tennis Division operates five tennis centers and offers adult and youth instructional programs.  In many areas citizens must travel an unusual distance (compared to residents of the service areas) to reach City recreation facilities.

A few facilities are not accessible to all populations.  Some neighborhoods have inadequate sidewalks and no bikeway facilities to their parks.  Children may not have suitable routes in which to bike or walk to the facility. Neighborhood residents may not be able to walk to a park and may find no place to park if they drive.

Swimming Pools

The City owns 21 pools - five natatoriums and 16 outdoor pools.  The pools have many of the same problems as other major recreational structures.  New indoor pools have been built for Adamsville and Washington Park.

Joint Use Facilities

  1. Several schools use city parks as their recreation areas.  These include Benteen Elementary, Cleveland Avenue Elementary, Drew Elementary, Dunbar Elementary and Kennedy Middle School.

  2. Five community facilities are major joint-use facilities: Dunbar (NPU-V), Georgia Hill (NPU-W), M. L. King (NPU-M), JFK (NPU-L) and Southeast Atlanta (NPU-Y).  JFK is administered by the Atlanta School System; the other four are administered by the City's Department of Parks Recreation and Cultural Affairs.

  3. While many of AHA's housing projects are served by nearby parks and recreation facilities, seven projects have on-site or adjacent DPRCA-developed and -operated parks, pools or recreation centers specifically to serve housing project residents.

Recreation Programs At DPRCA Facilities

Program development areas administered by the Bureau of Recreation include aquatics, athletics, tennis, special populations, and coaches' certification.  The Aquatics Division operates indoor and outdoor pools, provides instructional programs in swimming, and has developed the City's youth competitive swim team, the Atlanta Dolphins.  The Athletics Division operates the City's adult league plan in football, flag football, basketball and softball and youth team programs.  The Special Population Division offers programs for senior citizens and for persons who are both physically and mentally disabled.  This division also conducts the Bureau's outdoor camping programs and operates the Lake Allatoona Facility.  The new Coaches' Certification Program is taking the lead in providing training to youth coaches.

During the summer, the bureau's districts and divisions focus on Camp Best Friends, the largest youth day-camp program in the country, serving over twelve thousand young people at seventy-five sites.  The summer-camp program has become one of the bureau's most successful programs, offering children age five and up a variety of educational, recreational and cultural activities.

Atlanta Public Schools

Approximately half of all Atlanta public school recreational facilities are not available to the community during non-school hours. The location of most school facilities in the community makes them ideal for after-hours use as public recreational facilities. Better coordination between Atlanta public schools and the Bureau of Recreation in the planning and programming of all publicly owned recreational facilities could substantially improve City recreational services.

Anticipated Future Conditions

One of the biggest problems the City must face in the future is addressing a multitude of user needs while reducing programming and maintenance costs. Specific user groups dominate most major structural facilities; for example, gymnasiums are primarily used by young adult men, pools primarily by older children and tennis centers by tennis players. These types of facilities serve only approximately 5 percent of the surrounding population, while costing approximately 50 percent of the maintenance budget and 60 percent of the capital budget. In contrast, greenway trails will serve approximately 40 percent of the surrounding communities and have relatively low maintenance costs.  Additionally, structures such as gymnasiums have a limited life span.

Map 13.4 Recreational and Cultural Facilities

Map 13.4 Recreational and Cultural Facilities (Popup full image) 

While structured facilities serve a useful function, more emphasis will need to be placed on facilities that have a lower development and maintenance cost and that accommodate a broader range of user groups. The Parks, Open Space and Greenways Plan recommends spending the City's limited funds on new park land and on greenway trails, both of which serve a broad population, are relatively low maintenance and will be there for future generations.

Current Policies

  1. Provide community recreation centers within community parks that serve communities with the greatest needs.
  2. Provide an efficient community pool system that targets communities with the greatest need.
  3. Locate community and neighborhood recreational facilities in their respective parks and acquire open space as needed to meet acreage requirements in accordance with the park design guidelines.
  4. Coordinate development and programming of all gymnasium and natatorium facilities with the Atlanta School System in order to make most effective use of city property taxes. 
  5. Prioritize the development of multi-use facilities, which will serve all populations and age groups.
  6. Develop a system of pedestrian and bicycle trails within the open space and greenways system, for use by all ages.
  7. Establish as a priority the development of multi-use trails and other multi-use facilities that serve all ages.
  8. Assist in providing adequate recreational facilities in Atlanta Housing Authority communities.

Current Projects

Recreation Centers

A major recreation center and indoor pool are under construction for Adamsville.  A natatorium is under construction for Washington Park.Additions and renovations to Anderson, Brownwoodand Lang Carson recreation centers are underway. A large recreation center with two gyms and indoor recreational and competitive pools is being designed for Center Hill Park in North West part of Atlanta.  All are scheduled for completion in 2003.

Swimming Pools

In 1991, the City adopted a policy of replacing outdated neighborhood pools with indoor swimming pools.  Indoor pools have the advantage of serving larger populations and of providing service year-round.   In addition, they can be programmed by the Board of Education for organized team and school events.  Citizen feedback indicates a need for an indoor pool in Ben Hill Park.