Bushmills Neighborhood Green opens in Lake Highlands, the first finished park of the Dallas Greening Initiative

A city-owned lot in North Lake Highlands that one neighbor remembers as overgrown and used for dumping old couches is now a public park.

Dallas officials and the Trust for Public Land opened Bushmills Neighborhood Green with a ribbon-cutting on Thursday, Nov. 5. The 5.4-acre site is the first park finished under the Dallas Greening Initiative, a program Mayor Eric Johnson started in 2022 to turn underused city property into small neighborhood green spaces.

The Lake Highlands Advocate reported that more than 2,100 residents live within a 10-minute walk of the new park.

What is there

The project cost about $650,000, according to the Advocate. Rather than playgrounds or ball fields, the design leans on what was already on the land: a pond that had been hidden by brush, a creek and the existing trees. D Magazine reported that the site sits beside a branch of White Rock Creek.

Paths wind through the site, with benches, picnic tables, a pollinator garden and beds of native plants. Greenspace Dallas built a wooden overlook. The restored pond is meant to serve as wildlife habitat and to help handle stormwater. The Trust for Public Land also added lighting and opened up sight lines.

Before construction began, Better Block set up a temporary pop-up park on the property so residents could try out ideas and suggest features. Molly Morgan, the Trust for Public Land's Texas state director, told the Advocate that neighbors asked for a place to spend time outdoors together and did not want something "overprogrammed" that would draw crowds.

Council member Kathy Stewart said in remarks reported by the Advocate that the community input shaped the result.

Not every neighbor was sold

Support was not unanimous. One resident who pushed for the project told D Magazine during construction that a few neighbors "didn't want a park to happen at all." Another longtime resident told the Advocate he had worried homeless people would take over the site and had pictured swings and slides, but came away from the opening saying he preferred the finished park.

Upkeep will be split between Dallas Park and Recreation and volunteer "Friends of" groups. The Trust for Public Land said 10% of each greening initiative site's budget is set aside for ongoing maintenance.

More sites coming

Bushmills is one of five pilot sites in the program's first round, and the city intends to build 15 of these parks citywide within five years. Johnson said at the ceremony, as reported by the Advocate, that 14 more are coming and that about 54,000 residents will be able to walk to a neighborhood park once the program is done.

D Magazine reported that the sites range from several acres down to one of about a third of an acre.

The Trust for Public Land is raising $6.5 million for future sites through a campaign called Greener Dallas Greater Dallas, and will manage construction of the rest of the first round with the Park and Recreation Department.

Sources

lakehighlands.advocatemag.com

dmagazine.com