Lake Wylie park sprinting toward November ballot

One park still has a year or more of construction waiting. The other has even more work to do.

As park planners in Mecklenburg County announced new fields in Steele Creek, Lake Wylie residents continue the push for their own place to play. A years-long effort they say is closer to completition, but isn’t there yet.

In December, York County Council approved $2.45 million in hospitality tax money for a sports complex on county-owned land at Crowders Creek, if residents could pass a special use tax in the area and show how they would pay for the rest of the $8 million or more pitch.

Lake Wylie Athletic Association board members working on the park plan found they would need more than 2,400 petition signatures from a taxable area covering Council Dist. 2, minus small parts of the New Home and Allison Creek precincts.

On May 6, they submitted 2,900 signatures.

“The signatures were internally validated,” organizer Ron Domurat told Council 10 days later. “The petition was submitted.”

Group members will return to Council on June 20 for a full, detailed proposal outlining park costs and responsibilities. Domurat said it “wasn’t particularly difficult” getting so many signatures, given the desire locally for a park. Now the group has to wait for signature certification from the county, at which point they can ask Council to put the special tax measure on the general election ballot in November.

Kim Trainer, another organizer with the park plan, isn’t concerned about the legitimacy of their signatures. A couple hundred collected were from residents just outside the tax boundary, but even without those names plenty remain to meet the requirement.

“All of those have been vetted,” Trainer said. “They’re all good signatures.”

A park group attorney is drafting an ordinance now on legal details. Current plans are to create a special tax district similar to the one for local firefighting, with five appointed board members setting tax rates and deciding on spending each year with approval from Council. The county likely would maintain ownership of the site, despite not having a parks and recreation department.

“They best way for the board and the county to to be covered from a liability perspective is if the county keeps or maintains ownership,” Domurat said.

Estimates put the tax collecting about $7 million on a 10-year bond for construction, and about $400,000 in operating expenses. Likely a full-time and part-time position would be included to operate fields for tournament and recreation use. The group estimates a tax impact of $16 per year on a $100,000 home, or $24 per $100,000 commercial.

Trainer looks at the new park the way she does another hot topic locally, the idea of Lake Wylie becoming its own town.

“What we’re looking at, just like the incorporation thing, nobody wants to raise their taxes but that’s the only way to get anything done,” she said.

The park group is taking a bit of a chance putting the special tax district on the November ballot, when a presidential election is likely to draw significant turnout including voters who may know little about the plan. Often bonds or votes on more localized issues are scheduled by themselves, with the idea only voters informed on that issue will come out to cast a ballot.

Trainer said the park plan should be strong enough, and loud enough, to pass regardless how many voters turn out to the polls.

“We might get that in the fall, but hopefully we’ll get the information out,” she said.

One sign of progress for park planners is, now when the approach Council it tends to be with information on what is happening. For years group members and others pleaded for a park, but they see a shift now toward planning.

“I don’t think we need to get their approval at this point,” Trainer said, “because we’ve done what they’ve asked.”

More parks

Waiting on parks isn’t unique to Lake Wylie. Years after funding was approved for fields in Steele Creek, residents are seeing progress.

Thomas McAlister Winget Park sits on Winget Road in Steele Creek. It has trails, playgrounds, basketball courts, disc golf, picnic shelters, restrooms and more. It also has a softball field.

Funding for a third phase was approved back in 2008, but when the economy turned, so did several park plans in Mecklenburg County. Now the third phase is ready to begin. It will extend the softball field to a 300-foot fence allowing for baseball also, and install three more fields at that larger size around a central shelter area.

All four fields will have new LED lighting. Parking will be quadrupled to 240 spaces. A neighborhood connector trail will be extended to Chapel Cove.

Rod Fritz, project manager for the Winget improvements, expects dirt to move later this year. Design is about 75 percent done, with permitting and bidding to follow.

“Clearing and construction grading likely to begin late fall to winter of 2016,” Fritz said. “Currently scheduled for completion in the late summer or fall of 2017 with baseball/softball opening in early summer of 2018 once new Bermuda grass is fully established.”

Residents on both sides of Buster Boyd Bridge have clamored for more recreation and field space, which they see as more than having a place for children to play. They see fields and trails as ways to connect their communities.

“This kind of thing is making it a better place to live,” Trainer said.

This story was originally published May 27, 2016 at 5:32 PM with the headline "Lake Wylie park sprinting toward November ballot."