Tiffany Brown

This 20-acre lake on the site of an old rock quarry will be the focal point of the 100-acre Cornerstone Park in Henderson. The $12 million park at the northwest corner of Stephanie Street and Wigwam Parkway will provide a countrylike setting for hiking near Interstate 215 and planned high-rise buildings.

By Mike Trask

Mon, Oct 6, 2008 (2 a.m.)

When you’re a desert city with a 20-acre lake, there must be something you can do with it.

Fourteen years after acquiring the lake — the legacy of an old rock quarry — Henderson is moving forward on plans to capitalize on the lake as the centerpiece of its new, 100-acre Cornerstone Park.

Think of it as turning rocks into walks.

The decision was prompted in part by a survey several years ago in which residents expressed a desire for more walking trails. The lake will help set an even more pleasant scene, park planners say.

The quarry land — including a large depression that became a lake thanks to natural springs and neighborhood water runoff — was annexed by the city in 1994, and then purchased by the city with donations and Regional Flood Control District funds.

The site is at the northwest corner of Stephanie Street and Wigwam Parkway, within view of Interstate 215.

Cornerstone Park will be the third largest park in Henderson, with an estimated cost of $12 million.

Henderson is also developing the 160-acre Heritage Park site southwest of Burkholder Boulevard and Racetrack Road. That will become the city’s second largest park and include a senior center, a pool and athletics fields.

Its largest park is the 170-acre Equestrian Park east of Boulder Highway. Henderson also boasts its Arroyo Grande Sports Complex, a collection of nine sports fields at the 60-acre site of a one-time flood control basin.

With so many acres dedicated to picnicking, hiking and sports, it might seem that Henderson would score well for the amount of land dedicated to parks, when compared with other cities its size. This month Henderson was named Playful City USA by Ka-Boom!, a nonprofit group lobbying for playgrounds children can walk to.

By one old-fashioned measure, Henderson still lags far behind in providing enough parks for its population.

The National Association for Parks and Recreation used to promote the ideal of 10 acres of parkland per 1,000 residents. Henderson, with 462 acres of parks and open spaces for its roughly 270,000 people, falls far short of that goal, having developed less than 2 acres of parkland for every 1,000 residents.

North Las Vegas scores poorly too, based on that criterion. Even counting the 135-acre Craig Ranch Regional Park, which will remain only a golf course until the $20 million construction process begin early next year, it will have 462 acres of park land. For its population, that also works out to about 2 acres of parks per 1,000 residents.

But Tom Quash, a spokesman for the National Parks and Recreation Association says park planners have been shying away from the statistical formula, instead taking a closer look at demographics and determining what type of parks — and how many — fit the needs of communities.

Henderson sees a need for a passive park that offers the ability to have family picnic with bird watching and time for “quiet reflection.”

Cornerstone Park — in that slice of a former mine — is just the kind of park that’s needed and becoming more popular around the country.

“The hottest kind of park is a linear park with a greenway, walking paths and bike trails,” said Ed McMahon, a senior fellow at the Urban Land Institute. “The health and fitness craze has people interested in staying fit. Jogging, running and walking keep growing in popularity.”

Trails in passive parks are the most used recreational facilities in the nation. McMahon said about 2 percent of people use golf courses and 7 percent of people use community swimming pools. More than 50 percent of the public uses trails.

Next to the park site, a developer has proposed building two 30-story towers that would include 1,700 residential units and 851,000 square feet of retail, office and hotel space. The project would also feature a 13-story condominium tower, a 12-story hotel and a 13-story office building.

Nothing will happen to the lake, of course.

But it won’t have something for everyone. While offering a pleasing backdrop for hikers, it won’t be stocked with fish, and swimming is prohibited.