Columbus Recreation and Parks is eyeing the purchase of 51 acres of land for a future park on the city’s southwest side to help offset plans to turn McCoy Park into a private women’s soccer training facility.
At the July 14 Southwest Area Commission meeting, city parks officials plan to ask the commissioners to write a letter supporting the city’s application to the state for a $3.9 million grant to help purchase the land, confirmed parks spokesperson Kerry Francis. The property being considered is at 1145 Hart Road, near the intersection of Hart and Brown Roads and around the corner from the future site of Greenleaf Park.
City officials are asking the commissioners to support pursuing the land at the same meeting where the owners of a forthcoming National Women’s Soccer League franchise will again ask for approval of their rezoning application for McCoy Park. The recently awarded team owners – the Haslam and Edwards families plus Nationwide Insurance – have a $50 million deal with the city and Franklin County to pay for construction of a training facility at McCoy Park.
The five-member Southwest Area Commission vote is advisory only, however, and the Columbus City Council will have the final say on the rezoning application. Still, the area commission vote tests the efficacy of the city and owners’ efforts to earn back trust from the neighborhood after residents said they were hurt by the private deal Mayor Andrew Ginther’s administration struck to use McCoy Park. At last month’s meeting, three area commissioners indicated they would vote against the rezoning application, and one indicated they would vote in support. Another commissioner who submitted a letter in support was on vacation.
At the team ownership group’s request, the commission tabled its vote until the July meeting.
In between the two area commission meetings, a working group released its plan to replace the amenities intended for McCoy Park using three pieces of land the city owns. The report calls for developing a new nine-acre Greenleaf Park, adding an adaptive softball field to Lou Berliner Sports Park on the east side of Interstate 71 across the interstate from McCoy Park, and developing about five acres north of McCoy Park into a park with a therapeutic recreation building that was previously donated to the city.
Across those three sites the working group wants to develop in the near future, the city plans to replace all the amenities that were planned for McCoy Park. But it does not make up for the roughly 24 acres of public-use land at McCoy that the city is giving up. The report teased that more land acquisition is in the works without getting into specifics.
Purchasing land on Hart Road could eventually make up for that acreage and then some, but not immediately. The Hart Road land would become what the city calls parkland reserve, said Francis, meaning the city has no timeline to develop the land into a park.
“We’re focused on amenities versus the acreage,” Francis said.
Residents living near McCoy Park would have to travel more than two miles to access Greenleaf Park and the property on Hart Road.
Liz Reed, who was a working group member and chairs the Southwest Area Commission, told The Dispatch she is pleased with the plan.
“With this piece, it would replace the acreage but not right away,” Reed said. “In the end, I do believe it all equates and will be on the plus side in terms of acreage and amenities.”
The property on Hard Road is largely empty and has been owned since 1980 by Inland Products Inc., according to county property records. The Dispatch left a message with Inland Products Inc. seeking comment.
The land is zoned for industrial use. Reed said the Southwest Area already has a lot of industrial and manufacturing developments that pollute the air, so she’s pleased the land could instead become a park someday.
Reed said the state grant would restrict what could be developed on the site. It can mostly be used for a nature preserve, but it could also include some walking paths.
Government and politics reporter Jordan Laird can be reached at jlaird@dispatch.com. Follow her on X, Instagram and Bluesky at @LairdWrites.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Columbus zeroes-in on land purchase to compensate for NWSL McCoy Park deal
Reporting by Jordan Laird, Columbus Dispatch / The Columbus Dispatch
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Jordan Laird, Columbus Dispatch | USA TODAY Network
