Regional Parks

Regional parks serve broader purposes than community parks, with activities that often attaract users from ouside the immediate city. Redding's two regional parks contain our most frequently used recreation sites, and attract visitors from the entire north state.

Natural Area Parks

Natural area parks represent a new category of park in Redding, responding to residents' demonstrated interest in recreation experiences that embrace the many beautiful natural places within our city. These parks emphasize interesting topography, views or vista points, and special wildlife or plant habitats. These developed open spaces often offer public water access for boats or fishing -- in local lakes, streams, and the Sacramento River -- and passive recreation activities such as trails for hiking and biking. The City improves and maintains these parks at a different level than other park types, placing greater emphasis on their inherent natural characteristics rather than on high-impact recreation features.

Community Parks

Community parks can accommodate both informal, unstructured recreation, as well as organized, scheduled uses for many diffent ages. With their greater acreage, these parks allow for large group activities that are neither desirable nor feasible in smaller neighborhood-sized parks, including tournament play ball fields, field houses, and recreation and community centers.

Large Neighborhood Parks

Generally 5- to 15-acres in size, large neighborhood parks serve as both a recreation and a social focus for neighborhoods because their size allows a greater range of amenities that can accommodate the interests of many different age groups and users. These parks are primarily meant to serve the outdoor recreation needs of people living within walking distance of the park site. They are generally designed for casual group activities, pick-up ball games and limited organized sport activities.

Small Neighborhood Parks

Offering informal recreation areas that are less than 5 acres in size, small neighborhood parks are usually found in densely populated residential areas to service a specific local recreation need, or to take advantage of special opportunities. In Redding, these parks appear frequently as small pocket-parks or mini-parks within subdivisions.

Special Purpose Facilities

Special purpose facilities are oriented toward a single-purpose or a special use. Divided broadly into two types, the first group encompasses those site that have historical, cultural, and social activities associated with them. These include public plazas, the grounds of certain public buildings, performing arts facilities, amphitheatres, arboretums, ornamental gardens, and senior centers. The second group is recreation-related, and includes boat launches, fishing access points, aquatic parks, dog parks, golf courses, ball fields, sports stadiums and complexes, and community centers located outside of parks.

School-Parks and Joint-Use Facilities

School-parks and joint-use sites combine the resources of two public entities to expand recreational and educational opportunities in a cost-effective manner. These sites help address the need for recreation facilities, such as ball fields and gyms, and may also provide neighborhood park amenities in developed areas with little available parkland. Facilities with long-term agreements are included in the updated inventory of parklands. There are important distinctions between school-parks and joint-use sites. School-parks are city-owned sites adjacent to schools, with separate public use areas and access. Joint-use sites involve the sharing of school-owned facilities, with public availablity usually restricted to off-school hours. The City may also contribute funding to a joint-use site in the interest of increase the public's access to recreation opportunities.

Private Neighborhood Parks

Provided by a subdivision developer for the exclusive use by subdivision residents, private neighborhood parks are generally located within planned developments and are typically maintained by a homeowners association. Due to their private nature, these facilities may restrict access to the general public. However, these parks have been included in the inventory in recognition of the valuable contribution private recreation development has made to Redding's park system.