Vaibhav Sharma, Senior Photographer

The New Haven Parks Department has a sole director for the first time in four years, following the split of the Parks and Public Works Department in May.

Maxwell Webster ENV ’17, a former parks official for the city of Chicago, took over the new director role earlier this month as the city moves to solidify the reversal of a 2020 merger of the two departments. Park volunteers — dissatisfied with the lack of unique attention and resources devoted to the New Haven parks — advocated for months before the mayor moved to institute the separation in his 2024 budget proposal.

“We will continue to work side by side with our friends at Public Works,” said Webster. “Ultimately, from a city standpoint, [it takes] an all agency effort to just make sure that the city is in good shape and that servicers are provided to our citizens.”

Webster graduated from the School of Forestry and Environmental Studies — now the School of the Environment — in 2017. During his time as a student, he worked for the Urban Resources Initiative, specifically in the organization’s tree planting program and green spaces program. 

He said that the experiences allowed him not only to work in parks and neighborhoods throughout New Haven, but also to develop an “appreciation and love” for the city and its green spaces, as well as the people taking care of them. Webster comes to New Haven after serving as natural areas manager for the Chicago Park District.

“He has good management experience from the Chicago Parks Department. He has a New Haven background. He worked for the Urban Resources Initiative for a while, so he understands the importance of community engagement in the role,” said Mayor Justin Elicker. “We’re excited that he’s joined our team.”

Asked about future initiatives the Parks Department will take on in its new independence, Elicker pointed to the current push to provide additional and improved infrastructure across the city’s parks. He highlighted a recent state grant that distributed $12 million to improve Long Wharf Park and Elicker hopes will “dramatically change” the space. 

He noted that many of the city’s other parks will receive additional investment from pandemic-era federal funds. According to Elicker, each park is slated for a different type of investment — from upgrades to playgrounds to the addition of pickleball courts — based on community input.

Echoing Elicker, Webster emphasized the community events and programming hosted by the Parks Department, citing the Christmas tree lighting on the New Haven Green on Thursday. He hopes to promote and publicize access to green spaces and stresses their benefits for residents’ physical and social well-being.

He acknowledged, however, that the Parks Department was still in a transitional stage following the separation of the two departments and that there was not yet a “master plan” for addressing larger challenges, including climate change.

“We’re standing this department back up again,” said Webster. “We’re going to rely on and need additional community input engagement from partners to help size up and define that vision as well.”

But for now, both the mayor and park volunteers agreed that the split of the Parks and the Public is a step in the right direction.

Three members of the “Friends of Park,” independent volunteer groups affiliated with a specific park, told the News the merge simply was not working and that the parks took a backseat to public works. Rebecca Cramer, a member of leadership at Friends Beaver Ponds Park, expressed optimism that the split would prioritize park needs.

According to Elicker, the initial merger hoped to improve departmental efficiency, building on existing overlaps between the two departments’ operations and responsibilities. But this meant that there was not “someone waking up every day” thinking about the future of the New Haven parks, Elicker said. Having leadership focused on just parks facilitates better community engagement and ensures that someone can create a vision for parks, he added.

For Webster, New Haven’s unique natural landmarks are fountains of inspiration that he looks forward to tapping into. 

“They’re beautiful places. They’re really unique places.” said Webster, “You can walk out of your door and look up at East Rock or West Rock and just see, [a] jaw to the floor type thing in the middle of a city, right in a dense urban area, it’s pretty special.” 

96 percent of residents in New Haven live within a 10-minute walk of a park.