DALLAS, Texas — A neglected stormwater pond in north Lake Highlands has been turned into Bushmills Neighborhood Green, the first finished project in the Dallas Greening Initiative.
The park covers 5.4 acres at 10600 Black Walnut Drive and borders a branch of White Rock Creek known as Jackson Branch. For years it was overgrown, poorly kept and at times used for illegal dumping. Visitors will now find a trail about half a mile long, places to sit, picnic space and beds of native plants, plus an overlook of wood that Green Space Dallas built. Volunteers hauled about 500 pounds of trash off the land during cleanup.
The park started with a neighbor who reached out to Mayor Eric Johnson’s office and kept working with city staff. Getting from the first idea to the opening took more than six years.
Nearby residents helped design the space and asked for something calm, a place to walk and sit outdoors, rather than a park packed with ball fields or play equipment.
The program traces to 2022, when Johnson told staff to look for empty lots the city owned that might serve as small parks. Dallas brought in the Trust for Public Land, which used maps and park-access data to point to the neighborhoods with the biggest need. The goal is to revitalize 15 sites in all.
By the nonprofit’s count, more than 300,000 Dallas residents live farther than a 10-minute stroll from the nearest park or patch of public green space, the gap the initiative is meant to close one small lot at a time.
For Lake Highlands neighbors, the result is a quiet stretch of creekside land they can use every day instead of a fenced-off eyesore.
Filed under: Dallas TX Neighborhood News