Mayor pushes for botanical gardens at McIntire Park

Helen Flamini stood on patches of snow on the east side of McIntire Park and described her vision, turning putting greens and flags into tree-lined trails along the park’s hilly terrain.

“It’s so centrally located, but there are so many in Charlottesville who have never been to this part of the park,” said Flamini, president of McIntire Botanical Garden, a local nonprofit. “We have a very unique opportunity.”

The group held its first community meeting Thursday night on its proposal to create a 40 to 50 acre botanical garden inside the Charlottesville park, complete with trails, trees, flowers and possibly a conservatory within a few miles of downtown. With two of the nine holes in the park’s golf course falling to the Meadowcreek Parkway, advocates hope the garden could take its place.

“It’s just a gorgeous piece of property,” said Peter McIntosh, vice president of the nonprofit.

City leaders, including councilors, the parks and recreation advisory committee and city staff, have praised the idea.

“McIntire Park could be and should be the crown jewel of our parks system,” Mayor Dave Norris said at Thursday’s meeting.

As for the proposal’s design and amenities, Flamini said that would come as community input is garnered and funds come in.

“I like to think of it as planting the seeds,” Flamini said.

McIntosh said he was reluctant to pin down how much the garden would cost — if it were to rival the Lewis Ginter botanical gardens in Richmond, the cost could reach as much as $50 million spread over years. But by no means does the garden have to cost that much, he said.

“We’ll move forward with plans as money becomes available,” McIntosh said.

McIntosh said he hopes most of the funding could be raised through grants and private donations, but building the garden’s infrastructure could possibly be pursued as a public-private venture.

But residents pointed out that maintaining adequate operating funds was also crucial to ensuring the project’s success.

“It’s just as important to get the endowment to keep it running,” Albemarle County resident Ian Robertson said. “It’s the Achilles’ heel.”

Local conservationist and Charlottesville Botanical Garden board member Lonnie Murray said in an interview that starting with a modest plan — a few gardens, trees and trails — would not take a huge amount of money to get off the ground.

“We don’t have to build conservatories from day one,” he said.

A garden in McIntire Park has been floated before, and city parks and recreation advisory committee member Sallie Brown also noted that a bird and flower sanctuary was built in the park as a Works Progress Administration project in the 1930s.

“I think [the proposed garden] would be a very fitting tribute to the women and men who labored there 70 years ago,” she said.

A resident committee tasked with planning the east side of the park in 2004 recommended a conservatory or arboretum be built there, along with a recreational pond, which could also serve as a stormwater management system for the Meadowcreek Parkway. But in 2007, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers rejected the pond idea.

City officials said they would bring the framework for the eastern side’s master planning process to the City Council for adoption later this month.

“Anything that happens on the east side of the park will be a result of a community master planning process,” said Brian Daly, the acting director of Charlottesville’s Parks and Recreation Department. But, he said, “we don’t know when it will start.”