As Biscuit Run State Park starts to take shape south of town, one of the uses that some county residents would like to see is the provision of athletic fields. Unfortunately, the state doesn’t provide such things—it’s the job of localities, which aren’t allowed to build them in state parks. A proposed land swap might solve the problem, Brian Wheeler reports for Charlottesville Tomorrow, thanks to Habitat for Humanity of Greater Charlottesville. The non-profit owns the 100-acre Southwood Mobile Home Park, directly adjacent to Biscuit Run, and they figure they can donate thirteen acres to Biscuit Run in exchange for being given thirteen back. Then they’d take seven of those and provide them as a proffer to the county in exchange for permission to increase the density of housing in Southwood. All of this requires sign-off from the county, the General Assembly, and the Department of Conservation and Recreation, but there’s nothing extraordinary about the request, so it’s well within the realm of the possible.
4 Responses to “Athletic Fields May Be Incorporated into Biscuit Run”
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If this does go through as proposed I believe it will be a huge win for Dan Rosensweig- current habitat director, and former director of coaching at SOCA . Trade sloped acreage for flatter ground. Deliver acreage to the county for athletic complex, and in exchange gain valuable land to be developed at higher density, while the state park maintains peninsulas of former Southwood greenspace.Not sure why DCR and the General Assembly would support this, but I think it would be good for Albemarle County.
I think DCR would support it in that it shouldn’t much matter to them. Since they’re not interested in athletic fields, whether the park’s land is flat or sloped probably doesn’t make much of a difference. This parkland is so new, its purpose totally undefined, that swapping out a few acres shouldn’t make any material difference. Perhaps the only thing that would tip them past indifference is that this would quiet Albemarle County, which had been demanding active recreational (that is, urban park) features, which DCR doesn’t want to provide. By allowing this to happen, they can solve that problem.
The General Assembly doesn’t care about this sort of thing, generally regarding it as a local issue, and passing it as per the wishes of the sponsoring legislator. Biscuit Run appears to be wholly in the 59th House District, meaning that incoming freshman Delegate Matt Fariss (a Republican) an Senator Creigh Deeds (a Democrat) would be the most appropriate folks to introduce enabling legislation. Short of all-out civil war between the parties in the state senate, a result of their 20/20 split, I think such a bill would sail through.
Great job by Dan and others to get this through. More athletic fields will benefit the whole community.
If the County has the money to maintain these new fields why hasn’t it built them in the County’s existing parks? I have a feeling the building of these new fileds will not be as simple as it seems. Will the new road from Southwood be public or private and will it provide access to the new fields or will a new access road need to be built? Will these fields have restrooms?