City earmarks money to buy new parkland
7/10/09 * Daily Progress [full story] For the first time in recent memory,
Charlottesville has earmarked money in its capital budget to be spent
specifically on acquiring more parkland. The move comes roughly 29 years after the city last bought land to
expand its parks system, and as it has come under fire for its handling
of McIntire Park, where the Meadowcreek Parkway will trim acreage and
where a new YMCA will be built.“Parkland is sort of the liver and lungs
of a city,” said Planning Commissioner Bill Emory, one of the
commission’s strongest backers of using money to expand the city’s
inventory. “It’s important to acquire more greenspace and more
parkland.” The city’s fiscal 2010 Capital Improvement Program allocates
$100,000 for parkland purchases. Officials said the last time the city
spent money to add land to its park system was in 1980, when it spent
$23,500 for land in the Starr Hill neighborhood. Starr Hill Park is
about 0.4 acres.

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