BATON ROUGE - BREC and community leaders are hosting two meetings this week to get feedback on the future of several parks in north Baton Rouge.

The commission voted to sell Fortune Addition Park, Wenonah Street Park, Dover Street Park, Lanier Drive Park and Sharon Hills Park during a meeting last week.

The meetings will include discussions on district initiatives, obsolete land and parks process and a Q-and-A session. The first session on Tuesday will focus on Wenonah and Belfair and the second on Thursday will focus on the rest.

"This is about having a conversation, dialogue, community input and ensuring that as we move forward, it's right for the people who have invested, the people of East Baton Rouge Parish," District 5 councilman Darryl Hurst said.

Hurst said there are multiple pieces of criteria a park must meet to be considered obsolete. One of them was parks within a vicinity of each other, parks that don't have as much usage as other parks and are of public value.

"Public value is subject to public input," Hurst said. "They did not get public input and that is why this meeting is so important."

Hurst said part of the reason these parks aren't thriving as much is due to a lack of investment.

"Why would I play at a park that you didn't invest in? and so if you put investments in these parks, then you attract people to come to these parks," Hurst said. "When you have plots of land with no investment in the middle of a neighborhood, kids are gonna go where they get the most value out of their recreational time."

The first session is on Tuesday from 5:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. at Howell Community Park. The second is Thursday from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. at the Charles R. Kelly Community Center.