RALEIGH - Parks mean different things to different people. For some a park is a place to play tennis or shoot hoops. For others, parks provide an opportunity to walk through an open field or observe wildlife. In Raleigh, these differences are being contested in the case of Horseshoe Farm Park. The park is 146 acres surrounded by a horseshoe bend of the Neuse River in northeast Raleigh. According to the N.C. Natural Heritage Program, Horseshoe Farm Park is one of only three Natural Heritage sites and the only site of regional conservation significance in Raleigh's park system. It is also close to the places where many more people will live in the upcoming years as Wake County grows.

In 2005, the Raleigh Parks, Recreation and Greenway Advisory Board and the City Council asked a group of concerned citizens to create a plan for Horseshoe Farm Park. Over 14 months, the Horseshoe Farm Park Master Plan Committee collected information about current park use, future recreation demand and solicited public comment on the options for the park. More than 140 letters and e-mails were collected during the monthlong public comment period.

The Horseshoe Farm Park Master Plan Committee recommended an option that recognized and preserved the important natural values of the Horseshoe Farm site. It also provided a community education center, picnic facilities, volleyball courts, a restroom building, outdoor amphitheater, walking trails, greenway trails, a children's playground, parking and river recreation facilities for canoeing and rowing.

On July 20, the Raleigh Parks, Recreation and Greenway Advisory Board reworked the Horseshoe Farm Park Master Plan Committee recommendation. Additions included two outdoor basketball courts, a 24,000-square-foot recreation center and lots of parking with outdoor lighting. The reworking of the plan violates not only the intent of the original proposal, but also the spirit of participation from those who devoted themselves to the process. This is troubling on two fronts.

* FIRST, THERE ARE LEGITIMATE DEBATES that should take place about the merits of high-intensity active recreation sites versus quieter places that provide more natural experiences. As the region's population grows and undeveloped land resources shrink, decisions about our parks will become only more contentious. These decisions need to take place in open settings with transparent grounds rules.

Indeed, this was the intent of Raleigh's City Council when it adopted the Park Master Planning Process in 2003 to create a good faith public participation process for future planning efforts. The new rules were crafted in response to previous park planning incidents that had omitted public involvement or violated established planning policies.

The Horseshoe Farm Park Master Plan Committee was the first planning committee convened under these new rules. And yet the plan now includes basketball courts, additional parking and a recreation center, which are not representative of what the committee recommended. This results in a perception that the Horseshoe Farm Park Master Planning process was a sham and that government officials do not respect the work of the committee. It also contributes to the loss of public faith in the Raleigh Parks Department and city government at large.

* SECOND, THE REWRITTEN PLAN FAILS TO ACCOUNT for the natural character of the land and threatens to degrade the site. Unless thoroughly addressed, the impervious surfaces created by a 24,000- square-foot facility, basketball courts and accompanying parking will increase runoff, degrade water quality in the Neuse River and disrupt habitat of critters that are important to our natural and cultural heritage.

Public goodwill and citizen volunteerism are precious resources, much like the remaining open spaces on which our future parks will be built. Raleigh needs an integrated system of parks that offers different recreational elements according to the opportunity, site character and need for its residents. This system of parks cannot be determined by the Parks Department, Parks Board or City Council alone.

We need good-faith public involvement processes that reveal the diverse needs of our citizenry and build support for decisions. Clearer expectations for the role of the public and professionally trained facilitators who can negotiate collaborative decision-making are two recommendations.

Raleigh needs people to speak for the parks so the system will reflect the character of the people who will use them now and in the future. But as the Horseshoe Farm experience illustrates, it is not enough to speak for the parks. The people also need to be heard through effective processes.

(Toddi A. Steelman, Ph.D., is associate professor of environmental and natural resource policy at N.C. State University and a GlaxoSmithKline Faculty Fellow with the Institute for Emerging Issues.)