Red Fields to Green Fields

About the Program

Category: Parks and Recreation (Best in Category)

Year: 2013

Red fields to Green fields (R2G) is Miami-Dade County Parks, Recreation and Open Spaces Department’s (PROS) initiative to buy distressed real estate, convert it to parks, and create incentives for sustainable future development around new public green space. The initiative is guided by the Open Space Master Plan’s key land acquisition strategies that address health for the economy, people and the environment. This is a historic opportunity to revitalize our community and make Miami-Dade greener, healthier and more vibrant. The goals of the initiative are to reduce the oversupply of non-performing real estate, jump start economic development, recalibrate local property values, and create more livable, walkable neighborhoods. Transforming underutilized and distressed sites into parks offers near-term benefits – generating jobs, stabilizing the real estate market, and cleaning up the urban landscape. But parks also provide long-term benefits. Parks improve public health, giving adults and children places for exercise and play. Parks enhance property values of surrounding neighborhoods, increasing tax revenues over time. Parks improve the environment, absorb carbon, and help to clean and filter storm water runoff. Miami-Dade County has an opportunity to transform failed developments, converting underutilized commercial real estate into much needed green parks and open spaces.