Park Data Inventory Project

MARC is seeking help from local governments and agencies to fact-check park data for Greater Kansas City.

Park Map Snapshot An accurate park inventory is important to several regional planning initiatives, ranging from water quality to MetroGreen to Public Safety. Accurate and up-to-date park information will improve our ability to account for open spaces and trails in our planning work, highlight your jurisdiction's natural amenities on regional maps, and even improve public safety by providing key pieces of information to dispatchers using the regional 9-1-1 system.

This is why we're asking for your help to ensure we have the most up-to-data and accurate park and trail data for the MARC region. This collaborative process will benefit our agencies and area in many ways.

Benefits of the park and trail data collection process

Highlight connections. Mapping the region's parks will allow planners and citizens to look beyond their boundaries to see opportunities to establish regional connections.
Standardization of data. As MARC has done with other regional data sets – such as land use and streams – the information submitted will be standardized into a single form that's easy to share and use across boundaries.
Data development assistance. Some cities across the metro area may not have the resources to develop their own maps and data. MARC will freely provide all the information and data created through this project to local governments and the community.
Fill data gaps. By consolidating regional data, MARC will be able to identify where gaps exist in current plans and information collections. The more communities that participate, the more comprehensive the data record will be.
Data available to all. The standardized data will be made available for anyone to easily access online.

Solve park mysteries in your community

MARC has completed an extensive first review of available park data to create a draft regional park dataset, but a few questions about missing names and unclear boundaries remain for local governments and park agencies to answer. So, a fact check by local jurisdictions is the next step in our quality control process.

MARC will distribute these detailed questions in maps, and will use the responses to edit the regional park data. Contact MARC staff to receive the park mystery maps.

You can also help by:

Reviewing the entire parks dataset.
- Download the draft regional parks and parks facilities GIS data:
  (updated December 2010)
  - Parks (.zip file)
  - Park Facilities (.zip file)
- View the data in an interactive online map
Submitting updates and corrections. There are two options:
- Send changes online via our park data inventory form.
- Contact Andrea Repinsky, a member of our GIS staff, directly at arepinsky@marc.org or 816-701-8385. Park data corrections can be provided in GIS data format, paper or digital maps.

Facilities to be included in the parks data:

Parks and park facilities
Nature centers and recreation center buildings
Trails and greenways
Off-road bikeway facilities
Golf courses
Dog parks
Fishing areas
Boating facilities
Skate parks
Cemeteries
State, federal and other parks and conservation lands
Public sports facilities

MARC staff members have focused on editing park boundaries and names, but data reviewers are welcome to submit additional information on park facilities, such as restrooms, boat ramps, and sports facilities. Some park facilities, such as recreation center buildings and trailheads, are maintained in a point dataset.

MARC expects to work with regional parks staff to review the park data structure and move toward adopting the national parks GIS data standard released in April 2010 by the National Parks and Recreation Association.

MARC will be maintaining the park dataset, and will collect park data updates regularly in the future. For more information, contact Andrea Repinsky at arepinsky@marc.org or 816-701-8385.