For almost all decisions municipalities will employ what's called a strategic plan or loosely defined, an established definition of its goals. For example when designing a new park, Las Vegas would look at how this park would both fit into the parks it has already established, and how they can better capture their goals through this new space. So as important as it is too look around and figure out what is working for other places, its more important to look at existing, internal design and capitalize on that. I'm sure your experience included a lot more inquiry into the local parks, but make sure to show us what you found by posting it here.