With an eye to improving downtown Columbus, city and county officials Thursday agreed to build a soccer complex at Burns Bottom and to start discussions to expand the Trotter Convention Center.
During a meeting of the Lowndes County Board of Supervisors, the Columbus City Council and Columbus-Lowndes Recreation Authority officials, the Board of Supervisors voted to purchase property at Burns Bottom for a soccer complex, with the city donating 14.9 acres and providing water, sewage and in-kind services.
Additionally, the supervisors voted to commit $3.25 million to the development of the complex and alleviate the city from financial responsibility, if the city later pays to renovate the Trotter Convention Center.
The vote for the county to pay the soccer complex development costs initially was 3 to 2, with District 4 Supervisor Jeff Smith and District 5 Supervisor Leroy Brooks voting in opposition.
But after Columbus Mayor Robert Smith assured them the supervisors and council later will discuss a plan to address needed improvements in the county”s neighborhood parks, Smith and Brooks changed their votes to make the vote to fund the development of the soccer complex unanimous.
Columbus-Lowndes Development Link CEO Joe Higgins began the joint meeting by noting local developer Mark Castleberry signed a letter of intent to locate a Holiday Inn Express hotel at the site of the existing Gilmer Hotel, in downtown Columbus, if the Burns Bottom property were purchased for a soccer complex and the Trotter is renovated.
“You could do Burns Bottom, the Trotter, work with the developer and improve the Gilmer (site) and you could vastly improve our front door (to the area),” he told the council and supervisors. “We can show you how to do it with little, if any, tax increase. We could do enough in that multi-block area of downtown that, in five years, somebody wouldn”t recognize it.”
Phase I: The soccer complex
The City Council earlier voted to donate 14.9 acres of city-owned property and provide water and sewage infrastructure already in place, as well as in-kind services; the soccer complex is to be located on 70 acres in the Burns Bottom area.
Only 3 landowners have signed options on the property, but all 15 landowners in a “core group” of property owners, whose property is key to locating the soccer complex in the area, have options in hand, said Higgins, noting Link officials currently are calling the key landowners.
Dispatch Publisher Birney Imes has offered to pay for a landscape architect to draw up plans for the soccer complex to be similar to that recently recommended by a visiting charrette team, in town to assess and address needs of the city.
The proposed complex has been likened to a downtown park.
The council and supervisors agreed to fund about $34,000 a year to maintain the total soccer complex.
City officials were not given an amount of expected renovations on the Trotter, but earlier it was determined about $2.5 million in improvements are needed.
The council agreed, in principle, to renovate the Trotter, but more discussions likely will be needed before the council votes on the issue and the amount to be spent.
“We need to make the Trotter as presentable as we can make it,” said Higgins.
Phase II: Neighborhood parks
“We can”t just worry about the front door; we also have to worry about the back door,” said Brooks, asking for “documented assurance” city and county officials would work to “take care of neighborhood parks.”
CLRA Executive Director Roger Short has a master parks plan in place, but said it contains data from 2006.
However, he said his board would bring back a whittled-down list of neighborhood park needs that would meet or fall within the $1.5 million or $2.5 million city and county officials indicated they may be willing to spend.
Brooks made several motions to purchase the Burns Bottom property with various commitments regarding neighborhood parks, but they all failed.
“We”ve been trying to do soccer fields for 12 years,” said Board President and District 1 Supervisor Harry Sanders. “I just don”t feel like (the) Burns Bottom (project) needs to be held hostage. We”ll redo neighborhood parks in the second phase of the park plan.”
“It”s not going to be a panacea,” Brooks said of the soccer complex. “Let”s keep everything on an equal level. For all the soccer supporters out there, I feel your pain; I support you. But there are other things out there. Let”s look at this as a totality.”
“It”s hard to support anything that doesn”t include neighborhood parks,” said Jeff Smith, noting his district contains three neighborhood parks.
“I don”t think neighborhood parks should be a part of our decision,” said Sanders. “There hasn”t been enough discussion on neighborhood parks.
“I”m not opposed to neighborhood parks,” he added. “I”m opposed to putting them in the same motion as the soccer complex. They”re not the same thing.”
“I”m trying to represent my whole constituency, not just soccer moms,” said Brooks.
Ward 5 Councilman Kabir Karriem noted his support for the soccer complex, but also said “neighborhood parks need some work.”
“Let”s move on the soccer complex and then we”re going to do what we can to push through parks,” said the mayor.
“When we leave here, let”s go out on a positive note,” Robert Smith stressed. “(Parks are) the next phase. Soccer is not the end of it.”
CLRA officials expect to present revised numbers on the parks master plan within six to eight weeks; subsequently, the council and supervisors will meet to discuss the comprehensive plan.
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