Cornell, City of Ithaca seek ‘unified vision’ for parks

In a new collaboration, Cornell faculty and students will help the City of Ithaca assess and improve the current holdings, maintenance plan and governance structure of its parks - in what Gregg Houck, director of the Ithaca Youth Bureau, hopes will transform both the parks and their care.

"Most cities of our size manage their parks in a more strategic and cohesive way - Ithaca doesn't yet have a unified vision," Houck said. "The scope and scale of the work Cornell is going to take on greatly expands our capacity to think long-term while we manage the day-to-day work of the city, so this partnership is incredibly valuable to us."

The project is part of Cornell's Memorandum of Understanding with the City of Ithaca; in 2023, Cornell committed to a $4 million annual voluntary contribution through 2039, as well as $100,000 each year to fund collaborations with faculty and students that benefit the city. For 2026-27, the funds will support work from faculty and students in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences' Department of Landscape Architecture, to inventory the parks and create a proposed maintenance plan, and in the Cornell Jeb E. Brooks School of Public Policy, to research and recommend new models of governance.

"This opportunity is a springboard for a more robust and well-managed city parks system," said Acting City Manager Dominick Recckio. "Our vibrant city is all the more attractive as a place to live and work because of the natural areas and recreational activities we have. Continuing to enhance and support these green spaces with the future in mind is an incredible opportunity, and we are excited for what Cornell's experts are able to bring to the table."

Work is already underway, with a team of students in landscape architecture surveying the parks and taking inventory - how much space is taken up by lawn, playing fields and concrete, for example. The students are also evaluating accessibility to the parks and create a strategy for quantifying ecological value, which may currently be quite low given the amount of homogenous lawn, said Jamie Vanucchi, associate professor of landscape architecture in Cornell CALS and a lead faculty for the project.

"We want to look at how, through changes in maintenance and management, we can build the landscape value of the park system through a diversity of habitats, species and landscape types," Vanucchi said. "There's so much potential, and it's just really exciting to be a part of."

Vanucchi said she sees opportunities to make the parks both lower maintenance and more dynamic and sustainable. This could mean adding meadows and groves that don't need to be mowed, which would reduce costs and labor as well as emissions.

"It would also make the parks more pleasant and much more interesting," she said. "A meadow changes all year round, and you can occupy groves that provide shady canopies - and both add ecological value."

Vanucchi said she and her students will also spend the summer listening to stakeholders, including park volunteers and other community members, and hopes to find ways to build community through the process.

"This is an opportunity for citizen involvement and care, and caring for our public spaces, to me, is so central, it changes us as people, it changes us as a community," Vanucchi said.

Listening and community engagement will also be an emphasis for the Brooks School student team, led by Laurie Miller, associate teaching professor in the Brooks School and co-lead on the project. Miller's students are conducting interviews with city officials, volunteers and community members to better understand the needs and wishes for the parks.

"The idea is to be able to speak with everyone this summer and share some ideas to hear their feedback and perspectives," Miller said. "We want to ultimately deliver a plan that will allow the city to take advantage of opportunities and improve the care of the parks."

Miller's students will research governance structures in different cities, including the required staffing and budget, to recommend an appropriate size and scope for a new approach in Ithaca. Currently, maintenance for the parks is shared between the Ithaca Youth Bureau and the Department of Public Works, but Houck said the divided structure leads to gaps, especially when it comes to funding.

"That's led to a significant amount of deferred maintenance across the entire system," he said.

Miller's students will continue work into the fall and spring and culminate with a proposed plan to transition the governance of the parks, including strategies to build private and public partnerships and find more funding.

Multiple fall and spring semester design studios and seminars across the Department of Landscape Architecture will take the data collected over the summer and generate ideas for park transformation through maintenance changes. Interns will then develop a maintenance manual that outlines proposed changes to the landscapes and new standards for their care. The department will also provide a plan to pilot the manual's recommendations in one of the larger parks as well as three neighborhood parks in 2027.

Houck hopes the partnership will spur more collaborations with city government.

"We essentially have this giant learning lab that is the City of Ithaca with all sorts of potential for crossover," he said. "And we're very fortunate to have this incredible academic resource, with bright young minds and incredibly knowledgeable faculty who can really supplement and enhance the work we're trying to do as public servants in Ithaca."