Henrico park earns national award less than a year after opening

Jun 6, 2025 - 00:25

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Henrico park earns national award less than a year after opening

HENRICO COUNTY, Va. (WRIC) -- Henrico County's Taylor Farm Park is receiving national praise after less than a year of operations.

Taylor Farm Park, located at 200 Whiteside Road, opened in July 2024. It was the first park built in the county's East End in four decades and has reportedly been very popular ever since.

Before it can even celebrate its first anniversary, it's received a national award: the 2025 Innovation in Park Design Award, courtesy of the National Recreation and Park Association (NRPA).

Taylor Farm Park is the first Henrico park to ever receive a national award -- something John Zannino, director of Henrico County Recreation & Parks, called a "monumental moment."

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“We all knew, locally, that Taylor Farm Park was something special," Zannino said in a June 5 press release. "We wanted to see how that measured up against other parks across the country.”

Taylor Farm Park in Henrico County. (Photo: Henrico County Government)

The Innovation in Park Design award "recognizes park and recreation agencies that have improved their communities through innovative practices in park design, health and well-being, environmental resilience and equity," per the county.

“We used nature as the theme of this development,” Zannino said of how Taylor Farm Park was designed. “The play equipment, the play stream, the preservation of most of the site, the native plantings and all of the trees ... really embracing that conservation and stewardship mentality in the park design, while also having some really high-end features for people to recreate on."

He added that feedback from the community was heavily taken into account when developing Taylor Farm Park.

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Tyrone E. Nelson, the supervisor for the Varina district -- where Taylor Farm Park is located -- also celebrated this national honor.

"[This park] will be something for us to brag on for generations to come," he said.

Taylor Farm Park in Henrico County. (Photo: Henrico County Government)

Nelson emphasized how happy he is that Taylor Farm Park is so loved.

“It’s a humbling experience -- not just for our staff and our team, but to know just how the community has embraced it,” Nelson said. “We want to make Henrico a place where people want to live, work and play -- and the play part of it is important ... We want to make it the best."

Alongside this announcement, the county outlined several improvements it intends to make to Taylor Farm Park after hearing further feedback from visitors. These improvements include:

More parking -- including parking for buses, daycare and food trucks
Additional shade and seating in the playground area
An enhanced filtration system in the play stream

Adding more parking is of particularly high importance, according to Zannino, who explained that the park's popularity has heavily outpaced available spaces.

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"We had 70,000 people come in in our opening week," he said. "You add in 100 parking spaces -- and I think it's safe to say we would've hit 1 million guests in the first year."

The NRPA will formally recognize Taylor Farm Park during its NRPA Annual Conference in September.