You’d be hard pressed to find anyone in East Baton Rouge Parish who hasn’t enjoyed a life-affirming, smile-inducing experience at a BREC facility. It’s no wonder the 175-site park system won the National Gold Medal Award for Excellence in Park and Recreation Management, the third time in BREC’s history. From splash pads to dog parks, and from walking trails to kids’ summer camps, BREC contributes mightily to the health and happiness of residents both young and young-at-heart.
The opportunities to enjoy yourself through BREC’s facilities are endless: Take a pottery class. Spend the day on more than 100 miles of pedestrian and bike trails. Ride a horse. Cool off at a splash pad or water park. Relish in the beauty of nature in a conservation area. Visit the reimagined Baton Rouge Zoo. Take comfort in knowing that BREC’s bountiful green infrastructure also helps mitigate flooding during weather events.
BREC Parks Infographic
There’s a reason BREC has been so successful in delivering quality experiences to the people of East Baton Rouge Parish: It listened to the community.
In 2004, BREC launched Imagine Your Parks, a first of its kind community planning process that garnered extensive feedback from families and individuals through more than 140 public meetings. Learning what the community wanted from its parks system helped laser-focus BREC’s resources, triggering a multitude of new projects and improvements that dovetailed with the public’s wishes.
A second Imagine Your Parks plan was completed in 2014, driving even more projects and improvements. Now it’s time for Imagine Your Parks 3, the latest blueprint to ensure BREC continues to meet the community’s vision.
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Ribbon cutting at BREC's Forest Community Park
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Quality family time at BREC's Frenchtown Conservation Area
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Lakeside yoga at BREC's Milford Wampold Memorial Park
Imagine Your Parks: "You Imagined. We Delivered."
BREC sums up the success of Imagine Your Parks 1 & 2 by saying, “You imagined. We delivered,” and it’s 100% true. Public feedback from those planning processes led to the creation of:
• 12 (soon to be 13) large, multi-use community parks situated in every area of the parish, including Perkins Road Community Park, home to an extreme sports complex, and 40-acre Anna T. Jordan Community Park, complete with a recreation center, swimming pool and arboretum.
• A growing network of more than 100 miles of walking and biking trails thanks to a detailed Bicycle/Pedestrian Master Plan and a large network of inside the park trails
• The family-sized water park, Liberty Lagoon, as well as numerous community park splash pads
• 6 (yes, 6) dog parks
• 16 renovated and air-conditioned recreation centers
• Conservation areas where families and individuals can experience south Louisiana’s unique and unrivaled beauty
• Transformational projects like the University Lakes Project, the reimagined Baton Rouge Zoo, currently undergoing a $40 million renovation, and Greenwood Community Park, a multi-use site complete with kayaking, a splash pad, dog park and soon-to-open $1 million animal-themed playground. The park is a gateway to the Baton Rouge Zoo.
• Expanded opportunities to play pickleball, disc golf and even cricket
• The creation of “blueways,” or kayaking and canoeing launches that allow residents to explore bayous and other navigable waterways
Projects like these were driven by community feedback during BREC’s Imagine Your Parks 1 & 2. Visit Imagine Your Parks 3 to add your voice to the conversation about the park system’s future today.
