Our parks and natural areas provide health and recreation benefits to Portlanders of all ages, helping to make Portland a family-friendly and a livable city. A goal, established in 2020 , and in PP&R's Healthy Parks, Healthy Portland Planning Framework, is for all Portlanders to have access to a park or natural area within 1/2 mile, equivalent to 10 to 15 minute walk, of their household.

Without major funding support, year over year increases are very small and are driven by a combination of new housing development and acquisition and development of new parks - which are currently primarily funded by System Development Charges (SDC) fees.

There are discrepancies for access to parks depending on geography.  In general, areas that had been part of the City of Portland longest have higher levels of park access. Areas that became part of the City of Portland more recently, have lower levels of park access. District 1 in East Portland has much less park access with only 66% of households having access to a park within 1/2 mile, compared to 86% citywide.

View a PDF file with a map of parks and natural area level of service

Using Geographic Information System data technology, housing unit data compiled by Metro is combined with park location, street network, and park access point data to complete this analysis.

More details about Portland Park & Recreation's objective can be found in the April 2022 Level of Service Guidance for Developed Parks and Natural Areas report.