The West U City Council has decided not to purchase three residential lots on Mercer Avenue for future parkland.
At the start of Monday night’s city council meeting, City Manager Michael Ross announced that the city would not be moving forward with parkland acquisition, following a discussion by council in closed executive session.
Council was expected to vote on purchasing three residential lots; 6522 Mercer, 6528 Mercer and 6532 Mercer.
Just two weeks ago, the council met in executive session to discuss parkland acquisition. Ross told InstantNewsWestU.com at the time that the city was continuing to look at cumulative properties that may make up a future park in the Mercer/Pittsburg area.
Ross told the news organization last night that the council has no plans to continue to pursue parkland acquisition.
“It has been taken off the table completely,” he said.
The city has been looking into parkland acquisition since 2005. In 2006, voters approved a bond election authorizing the city council to issue up to $2 million in municipal bonds to fund the acquisition and construction of a park or parks within the city provided that the park is located west of Buffalo Speedway and east of Auden. Those bonds have not been issued.
The council directed a parkland acquisition committee to continue to look for properties that could someday become a park in March of last year.
Ross told InstantNewsWestU.com that the decision to not move forward with purchasing residential lots for parkland had to do with public input that council received prior to Monday’s council meeting.
Council heard from 12 residents last night, some in favor of the city purchasing the lots on Mercer and some opposed.
Former Parks Board Chair Russ Schulze and former Parks Board member Mardi Turner both said they were disappointed that the item had been pulled from the agenda. Turner said she had polled houses in the area and found no big objections to the properties someday being a park.
Former Mayor and City Councilmember John Neighbors said in years past when the city acquired parkland, he couldn’t remember a time when there wasn’t opposition. He encouraged the council to keep thinking about parkland acquisition.
Parks Board Chair John Wilkinson said there appeared to be willing sellers and neighbors in favor of parkland acquisition and he encouraged council to continue to pursue it.
Some residents said they had concerns about the property that was being considered for parkland.
Gretchen Mazziotti said that her and her husband have two children and understand the importance of parks, but she had concerns. The three lots that the city was considering buying were in the middle of a residential block, not on a corner and were not visible.
John Godbold, a Mercer Street resident and a developer, said that it’s important to hear opinions from stakeholders and residents around the area. He said he was concerned because he heard about the city’s plans to purchase residential lots Monday afternoon. He also things parking will be a hard challenge to overcome.
“Let’s be clear and open how things are going to be done if you look at this again,” he said.
Stephen Schneidau, a Mercer Street resident, said that well thought out and planned parks add value to neighborhoods. He was concerned that a majority of the parkland is hidden from view.
Louise Bergeron, who also lives on Mercer, said she was concerned about the shape of the park and was worried about criminals coming up Poor Farm Ditch and kids playing in the ditch.
Locating a potential site for a park in this underserved area of West University has been vetted by different city councils, city appointed park committees and citizens for years. Contrary to rumor, the parks board does not have a policy of only considering corner lots, but a corner lot is preferable to improve parking. The Mercer/Pittsburgh lots that back up to Poor Farm ditch have been considered before because of the beautiful trees and spacious land that could offer a unique park setting. Access could be controlled by fencing and security increased by motion detector lighting and additional police patrols to insure park user and neighbor safety and peace. The challenge of this site has always been ingress and egress and parking off Mercer and potentially Pittsburgh in the future. Alternatively, the lots could be sold to developers who would cut down the beautiful trees and clear the land. If you go north on Mercer a couple blocks you can see the redevelopment option in action.
I applaud Council for its decision at this time. In my opinion, the $2 million bond authorization approved by citizens was for a “neighborhood” park, defined in the bond proposal basically as a park intended to serve a 1/2 mile neighborhood area West of Buffalo and East of Auden.
If Council decides to pursue purchase of the “Pittsburg properties” for a nature preserve, the issue should be put to a vote of citizens. Many people were led to believe that the $2 million amount would purchase this wooded property. It turned out the asking price was more that double that, and there were “strings” to the transaction which were a deal breaker for some.
Some people would like to see the City purchase this property to preserve the natural setting. I suggest that IF the City Council wants to proceed, they should negotiate and execute an option to purchase the property (fixing the price and all terms) and make the transaction subject to approval by a vote of citizens in the May 2013 City Election.
It has been a while since I have driven through this particular area, but I would think there are still older houses for sale that would provide a better location for a neighborhood park than one next to Poor Farm Ditch. It is nice that West U has so many different types of parks to offer. I personally liked the Pocket Park across from the library on Rice and Auden. When I was a kid, we played at Wier Park on Sunset and on the grounds of the school. I think residents are correct in being concerned that a majority of the proposed park would be hidden from view. While on my daily walks in West U, I can remember being asked by non-residents, who probably worked in the area surrounding West U, if there was a park where they could eat lunch.