DIVINING HERMANN PARK’S FUTURE TRANSIT NEEDS 
Another 20-year master plan for Hermann Park is currently in the works as the last one gets wrapped up, writes Molly Glenzter this morning. Per designer Chris Matthews, who’s working on the project as part of landscape architecture firm Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates, the planning isn’t all “fun things like choosing what tree to plant:” unlike the 1995 master plan redo, the design team this time includes a “consultant for all things mobile, which in the old days used to mean cars. Now it means cars, bikes, transit and pedestrians — how to balance all that stuff.” Matthews notes that the planning is further complicated by the need to predict what mass transit will look like 2 decades from now; Hermann Park Conservancy president Doreen Stoller adds that “with Houston getting ever more dense, each square inch of park space is becoming more precious and will need to be put to its highest and best use.“ [Houston Chronicle; previously on Swamplot] Photo of Hermann Park kiddie train: Lou Minatti
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Do away with the golf course and put it to better use. “I tell you, country clubs and cemeteries are the biggest waste of prime real estate” Rodney Dangerfield-Caddyshack.
Thats the best rail in Houston.
Please tell me the Hermann Park master plan includes better event parking! I’ve only really enjoyed Zoo Lights once, when I arrived early and (miraculously) managed to find a place to park on the first try. And I don’t think I’ve ever enjoyed Zoo Boo. Struggling to find a parking space kills the events for me. Sad because they work so hard on them….
@ZAW: Metrorail. There is parking all up and down the red line.
Sounds like they are gonna have to get rid of the golf course. Nobody could possibly argue that a golf course is that area’s “highest and best use”.
@GoogleMaster: Some folks with children apparently are infatuated with the idea that they have to be able to park right in front of wherever they’re going, and any other option with children is somehow not doable. Yet somehow families through history, and in many places today, manage to get around by walking and even on transit. Even by choice! How is it even possible?
Golf courses, as a part of a bigger park, are a perfectly good use of space. Yes, most people at the park don’t use that space, but park is not supposed to be a space where every square inch is utilized by people to the max. Part of what makes great parks is being surrounded by green space. I don’t use the course much, but enjoy the scenery as I walk by.
I heard there was talk of actually decreasing onsite parking–sending cars to TMC or the surrounding neighborhood. There are a lot of problems with this plan, but it does hint to a mindset of the future when we won’t all be beholden to our vehicles.