Survey says: Keep Crozet park green

Suggestions for amenities at a park in a Crozet meadow have been plentiful — a pavilion, multi-use fields, a playground, a picnic area, a giant chalkboard.

One feature many community members have requested would be to keep the parkland’s natural beauty intact. The Western Park design committee has received a lot of feedback about preserving the natural areas of the park, said committee member Karen Arch.

“It’s an opportunity to leave parks natural for the habitats of the birds and animals,” Arch said.

For the past two months, the committee has been collecting the community’s opinions on what should go in the 35.8-acre public park. Pat Mullaney, director of the county’s parks and recreation department, said Western Park will help meet Crozet’s need for additional park space.

“We knew that with the neighborhood model, there would need to be a separate school and park site developed,” Mullaney said.

Mullaney stressed that the park will be for county residents, and is not just meant for residents of Old Trail, a subdivision that is supposed to include 2,200 houses and townhomes, as well as a town center. As people move into the subdivision, officials expect they will require more community services.

Suggestions for the park were submitted in March through a community workshop, e-mail and focus groups. Mullaney said that once the design committee narrows down the list, project architect Will Rieley will develop a preliminary master plan.

Rieley said the land has “tremendous limitations” but there will be enough room for the park.

“A lot of the land in the flood plain is in critical slopes, which means it’s steeper than 25 percent,” Rieley said. “We also have some wetlands. The land that we can’t build structures on will be playing fields, walking trails and natural areas.”

For now, Old Trail’s developer, Beights Development Corp., owns the land. Justin Beights, vice president of the corporation, said the undeveloped acreage for the park was promised to the county as part of a deal during the rezoning process. The plans were finalized in September 2005, when Old Trail’s rezoning request was approved.

Lickinghole Creek will border one end of the land for the park, which will need to be surveyed before the developer turns it over to the county. Beights said his firm recently put out a request for proposals to surveyors.

The design committee, focus groups and the county’s Planning Commission and Board of Supervisors will review the park’s master plan before a final plan is created this summer. Mullaney said the county is planning to set aside $1.8 million in the 2010-11 fiscal year for the park’s construction.

Arch said the design committee would meet May 22 to discuss the public’s requests for the park and to accommodate the top priorities in the design.