With the invention and subsequent popularity of MySpace, Facebook and Twitter, it’s easy for someone to hide behind their computer and use social networking as a means to communicate with family, friends and neighbors. Although these online tools are great for a quick and easy way to stay in touch, communities like Avalon Park and Vista Lakes are still promoting the use of green space and outdoor activity to stay in touch and stay healthy. Used for all types of recreational activity, green space is incorporated into neighborhoods throughout the East Orlando area equipped with parks, playgrounds, bike trails and other facilities that allow residents to get outside and be active in their neighborhood. Most importantly, the green space throughout East Orlando allows for neighborhoods to become communities.

“Green space, in the form of parks, is important to be integrated into neighborhoods and towns as these places promote social interaction, incidental neighborly contact and recreational opportunities,” says Ross Halle, the vice president of town planning and architecture at Avalon Park Group. “They promote public activity, and they establish an identity and central gathering place for the neighborhood and community.”

Aside from strengthening a community, Halle believes that the public activity on green space results in safer streets and is also a necessity for our environment. “Preserved natural green space is equally important for the peaceful coexistence of the natural and manmade environment,” he says. “Natural green space woven through a community is critical in establishing wildlife corridors and promoting the continued working of natural ecological conditions.”

Gary van der Laan, the senior association manager of Leland Properties, which manages the Vista Lakes community, has similar views as Halle in regards to the purpose of green space.

“It gives people a place to gather, and it gives them a place to have an event, like block parties,” says van der Laan. “I think it just really establishes the neighborhood.”

The Vista Lakes community holds different events throughout the year that utilizes their green space, such as block parties, movies in the park, committee meetings, and picnics, much like Avalon Park.

One event, held in communities with access to green space annually, is National Night Out, packing in crowds in Vista Lakes, Moss Park and Avalon Park locally as well as communities across the country. The event aims to build a bond between neighborhoods and police departments across the nation in order to build safer communities and promote the importance of neighborhood watch communities. Van der Laan says attendance at this annual event will sometimes draw crowds of 500-600 people, and without green space, the communities wouldn’t be able to partake in this gathering.

Vista Lakes isn’t the only property that van der Laan works with. Many communities that Leland Properties manages don’t have access to green space, and van der Laan says there’s a noticeable difference between communities with and without it. The continuity of the neighborhood is lost without it, because events, such as neighborhood watch meetings, can’t be held without relocating to a spot outside of the community, van der Laan says.

“People don’t know each other. They don’t talk to each other. They drive in, park in their garages, and that’s it, they don’t see each other. There’s no reason to go outside,” says van der Laan. “But, in the communities where we have those spaces and park areas, you see a lot more neighborhoods that tend to be a lot stronger. They know each other, or at least have seen each other’s faces around, so then people tend to be a lot friendlier.”

Van der Laan also believes that his company benefits from the neighborhoods that have the ability to access green space. He thinks that communities with green space have a “real community feel and a real neighborhood feel” and believes that communities are easier to manage when they have that characteristic.

“It’s not just an individual living in a house. They’re living in that community and they take pride in that community.”

Article by Nicole Lauber