The Trust for Public Land released its 2025 ParkScore Index and Charlotte has dropped in the rankings — again.
Charlotte-Mecklenburg ranked 90th out of 100 urban areas this year — three spots below last year’s 87th-place finish. The nonprofit said the city’s decline was caused by the other cities moving up, not by the county’s park system.
Easy access to parks is the biggest issue for Charlotte residents: According to the nonprofit, just 39% of residents live within a 10-minute walk of a park. That places Charlotte well below the national average of 76%.
Will Klein, director of parks research, said this goes back to a lack of park development in the last century as Charlotte expanded rapidly outwards.
"As it was developed over the last 100 years, [Charlotte] just didn't have a lot of parks built as part of that development," Klein said. "So there's a history here of the way the city and county look that is a real challenge for city leaders and county leaders to address today. And you see that in the low access, you know, the low park access scores and acreage and things like that."
However, one positive note for the area is Charlotte’s average park size — 22.3 acres — the largest among all parks across the country. Klein also noted that other cities have made significant investments to improve their park systems.
For example, Atlanta has jumped from 50th to 21st in the last decade, largely by investing in greenways. Charlotte-Mecklenburg has also invested in parks, but according to Klein, Atlanta took a different approach to improve their score.
"Opening up schoolyards to the public, for community after school hours and on the weekends," Klein said. "It's expensive to buy new park space. Schoolyards already exist, and working with the school districts on that collaboration to open up that park space is one of those strategies that particularly works well in fast-growing areas."
He also noted that cities can make progress by collaborate with other public agencies in order to transform existing public land into park spaces.
Washington, D.C., took first place in this year’s ParkScore index.
