GENERAL MUNICIPAL AND COUNTY PARK PLANNING 105 



sections of the country it has not as yet been intensively applied. During 

 the recent study of municipal and county parks reports were received of 

 thirty-eight counties having park systems, and the total area of these sys- 

 tems was 61,656.56 acres. The Cook County Forest Preserve system com- 

 prised 31,600 acres of this total, and the Westchester County Park System 

 (New York) comprised approximately 16,000 acres. Seven other countries 

 were reported as in the process of developing park systems. 



Considering the fact that there are over three thousand counties in the 

 United States, the number of counties haying already established park sys- 

 tems or are in process of establishing such systems appears very small. 

 The counties as political units admirably adapted to park planning under 

 certain conditions are, in fact, undeveloped fields of tremendous importance 

 in the general outdoor recreation movement. They have proven their use- 

 fulness both in the metropolitan regions of great cities and in regions more 

 rural in character. 



Up to the present time most of the outstanding county park systems 

 have been developed as a unit or units for handling metropolitan park prob- 

 lems. Essex, Hudson, Union counties, New Jersey; Westchester and Erie 

 counties, New York; Wayne County, Michigan; Cook County, Illinois; Mil- 

 waukee County, Wisconsin; Los Angeles County, California, are examples. 

 Marathon County, Wisconsin; Henry County, Indiana; Converse County, 

 Wyoming; Muskegon and Jackson counties, Michigan, are examples of 

 county parks in regions more rural in character. 



As a general policy in regional planning the use of counties as planning 

 and administrative units for parks in metropolitan regions should be con- 

 sidered with a great deal of caution for the reason that a single county rarely 

 ever comprises within its borders the entire metropolitan region. Regional 

 planning in connection with cities should if possible be considered as a unit, 

 and administrative machinery for handling such a common need as out- 

 door recreation spaces may be more effective if the jurisdiction covers the 

 region regardless of existing political boundaries. 



The Boston and Cleveland Metropolitan Park District plans are 

 admirable in this respect. In the environs of New York the fact, that parts 

 of the metropolitan region lie in different states renders both planning and 

 administration of metropolitan affairs exceedingly difficult so far as unity 

 is concerned. Under such conditions the use of counties as planning and 

 administrative units for parks in regional areas is perhaps the only feasible 

 way out of the difficulty. On the other hand it is unfortunate that the Cook 

 County Forest Preserve District is coterminous with the boundaries of Cook 

 County. This district properly should not only include Cook County but 

 also parts of other counties and perhaps in time the whole of other counties. 



