City earmarks money to buy new parkland

For the first time in recent memory, Charlottesville has earmarked money in its capital budget to be spent specifically on acquiring more parkland.

The move comes roughly 29 years after the city last bought land to expand its parks system, and as it has come under fire for its handling of McIntire Park, where the Meadowcreek Parkway will trim acreage and where a new YMCA will be built.“Parkland is sort of the liver and lungs of a city,” said Planning Commissioner Bill Emory, one of the commission’s strongest backers of using money to expand the city’s inventory. “It’s important to acquire more greenspace and more parkland.”

The city’s fiscal 2010 Capital Improvement Program allocates $100,000 for parkland purchases. Officials said the last time the city spent money to add land to its park system was in 1980, when it spent $23,500 for land in the Starr Hill neighborhood. Starr Hill Park is about 0.4 acres.

The city has added to its park system over the years — such as the conversion of city-owned property into Schenk’s Greenway. But, if spent, the $100,000 would represent the first city money used to buy new parkland in close to three decades.

“That is long overdue,” City Council candidate Bob Fenwick said of buying new parkland.

“They can say whatever the want in the city budget, but saying it and doing it are two different things,” he added.

The Planning Commis-sion recommended setting aside funds to acquire parkland last year as the current CIP was being developed. Originally the request was for $1 million, and commissioners specifically asked that money be taken out of the city’s match for the Meadowcreek Parkway and use part of that to buy more parkland.

Emory said he thought it was especially important because of the parkway being built through McIntire Park. However, as a condition of the city granting a temporary construction easement to the Virginia Department of Transportation to build the road, VDOT must give 49.1 acres of replacement parkland to make up for what is lost during construction.

Though the amount of money to purchase the land in the current plan is greatly reduced from its originally proposed $1 million, the City Council heeded commissioners’ recommendation by backing the endeavor, which at one time was not included in the budget at all.

“We should be acquiring some land,” Councilor Satyendra Huja said, adding that it should be purchased to expand recreation space and for environmental protection.

Emory added that the city was doing good work on its recreation programs and new facilities, such as the Onesty Family Aquatic Center at Meade Park. “But I’m a big supporter essentially for parks that people walk [into] and admire.”

Parks and Recreation Acting Director Brian Daly said that parkland acquisition funding could be used on other items apart from official parks, such as trail connections and property easements.

“That money would be more than sufficient for a number of those,” Daly said.

It is unclear how much land $100,000 could purchase, but Emory said the city is likely to get better deals when the economy is weak and therefore land values lower.

No specific purchases have been made, but Mayor Dave Norris said that a few places have been looked into. One piece of land is on Davis Avenue, Norris said, that sits adjacent to Northeast Park. That park in North Downtown is 4.8 acres and was acquired by the city in 1975.

“It’s something that would be a natural addition to the inventory,” Norris said of the land on Davis Avenue. The city is also looking at other properties, he said, but would not specify where.

The city’s comprehensive plan, however, says that parkland should be purchased in areas where it is lacking.

Commissioner Dan Rosensweig said he thinks the city has a need for differing types of parkland, such as recreational field space and also parks with open space and walking trails. The lack of active field space in the area is demonstrated by controversies such as the one surrounding the McIntire Park lit softball fields, he said, which were going to be replaced by a multi-sport rectangular field. Softball enthusiasts protested the city’s plan after discovering that the fields were going to be removed.

“It’s symptomatic of a bigger issue,” Rosensweig said. “That suggests very clearly that we need to expand the number of facilities in the area rather than switching one type of recreational use to another. We just have an inventory problem.”