This planning document helped secure more than $1 million in grant support from organizations including the NC Parks and Recreation Trust Fund, Clean Water Management Trust Fund, and NC Water Resources.
The park, completed in 2021, now features a critical mix of local and regional recreation facilities to attract a variety of user groups, including a 7.5-mile mountain bike trail system, 18-hole disc golf course, greenway trails, dog park, picnic facilities, and more.
Park Master Plan
As Valdese works to diversify and reimagine its identity and improve quality of life for its families, this project will help capitalize on surrounding natural assets, and establish Valdese as a destination for outdoor recreation in western North Carolina.
Establishing a Regional Asset
The concept takes into account the environmental topography that surrounds Lake Rhodhiss, existing natural and manmade elements, and plans for future expansion.
Branding
Our team dreamed up a new logo for Valdese Lakeside Park to help establish it as a desirable escape into nature.
Public Engagement
Our team worked closely with the Town Council, steering committee, residents and other local stakeholders to craft a plan for Valdese Lakeside Park that gained full buy-in and support from the local community.
Destination by Design led planning, design, and engineering efforts for the Town of Valdese to develop Valdese Lakeside Park, a 300-acre park adjacent to Lake Rhodhiss. Completed in 2021, the park now features a 7.5-mile mountain bike trail system, an 18-hole disc golf course, greenway trails, a dog park, and picnic facilities, with DbD’s planning document helping secure more than $1 million in grant support from sources including the NC Parks and Recreation Trust Fund.
In North Carolina, recreation master planning and land use planning come together especially well for lakefront properties, where environmental topography has to guide every design decision. Lakeside Park reflects that pairing, accounting for the natural and manmade elements surrounding Lake Rhodhiss while planning for future park expansion, ensuring the site’s long-term development respects the landscape it depends on.
A single well-planned park can reshape how an entire town sees itself. Lakeside Park was designed to help Valdese diversify its identity and improve quality of life for local families, using the surrounding natural assets of Lake Rhodhiss to establish the town as a genuine outdoor recreation destination in western North Carolina, backed by full community buy-in from Town Council, a steering committee, and local residents.
Recreation master planning is the process of designing a public park’s layout, amenities, and brand identity to serve a range of user groups while positioning the site as a lasting community asset. For Lakeside Park, that meant site analysis, grant funding support, and engineering across a 300-acre property, paired with a new park logo built to establish Lakeside Park as a desirable escape into nature.
Valdese sits in Burke County in the foothills of western North Carolina, adjacent to Lake Rhodhiss. That lakefront location made it an ideal site for a 300-acre regional recreation destination, giving Valdese a natural asset around which to build its identity as a hub for mountain biking, disc golf, and lakeside outdoor recreation.
