There is little question Golden Gate Park in San Francisco, Balboa Park in San Diego, and Central Park in New York help shape their cities.

It remains to be seen, however, if any Valley cities will develop park space that can influence the area's identity on the same scale.

Tempe is going to try starting this year, and although the end result might neither be as massive nor serve as many people, it could prove to be just as important.

"Tempe is poised for a wave of unprecedented growth right now, with upwards of 5,000 new residential units in the immediate future," said Eric Hansen, a city planner who is overseeing the project.

"The time is now to create a project that will serve to enhance the quality of life for our ever-expanding downtown. We are at a really, really critical moment in Tempe's history."

As buildings inch upward and outward in Tempe, a New York City non-profit agency, Project for Public Spaces, is devising a way for the city to preserve the areas in between - making sure there are pockets of shade and places to linger for residents, tourists and employees.

During the next year, the non-profit's staff will conduct a study and draw out a plan for Tempe's downtown area that can be put into place along with the dozens of coming development projects.

To do so, the nationally recognized non-profit will examine current and future needs for paths, parks, pocket parks, historic parks and preserves, streetscapes, signage and publicly accessible private amenities, and how they all fit together. Its staff will establish maintenance standards and determine funding mechanisms for Tempe's public spaces.

A Public Spaces staff member was in town for preliminary work Monday, but the process will likely officially kick off in October.

"It is as important to ensure that we retain the open spaces and the connections among those open spaces to make downtown the inviting place it was intended to be," said Mayor Hugh Hallman, who said he emphasized this sentiment with PPS this week.

"It's all about the kind of space and quality of space and the care with which it is connected."

Project for Public Spaces was among five groups that put in bids for the project earlier this year. But PPS stood out to the selection committee because of its depth of expertise, city officials said.

It was founded in 1975 and since then, its employees have worked to strengthen communities with better public spaces throughout the country and around the world.

It has worked on parks, plazas, squares, transportation, civic centers, public markets, downtowns, mixed-used developments and campuses to enhance a sense of place that gives a community an identity, according to the company.

Notable projects include the Congress Street Master Plan in Tucson, the Yale University College and Chapel District redevelopment, Bryant Park and Rockefeller Center in New York, Freeway Park in Seattle and Fort Worth Square.

Tempe leaders have been pushing toward implementing a similar plan for the downtown district for about a year, Hallman said.

Doing it now will mean front-loading the placement of parks while land is still available or under construction, Hansen said.

It will also mean avoiding the potentially expensive and complicated process of doing it after the development boom is done.

The city is paying Project for Public Spaces $300,000 for its services, which will take an estimated eight months.