Following several earlier studies and reports, NCPPC delineated a three-part plan for the District’s Park System in its 1928 Annual Report. Adopting the McMillan Plan (see card) as the foundation of the system, it planned two additional project categories: Neighborhood Recreation Facilities and City Parks.

NCPPC’s neighborhood recreational facilities concept followed a study of Chicago’s parks conducted by Commissioner Frederick L. Olmstead and the University of Chicago (summarized in NCPPC’s 1928 Annual Report supplement, “Plans and Studies Washington and Vicinity”). With housing demand, automobile volume, and recreational barriers intensifying, NCPPC concluded that it was no longer tenable to assume children’s physical exercise demands could be fulfilled in underutilized streets, vacant lots, and unused private open spaces.

The report grouped a set of more broadly oriented park facilities into four groups: Rock Creek Park Stream Valleys, Fort Drive, Potomac River Parkways, and miscellaneous undertakings (e.g., valley acquisitions to reduce storm sewer demands).