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The Dispatch wrote
River park might expand
Saturday, November 22, 2008
By Mark Ferenchik
The new Scioto Audubon Metro Park on the Whittier Peninsula might attract more than birds and their binocular-toting followers. It also might draw wall climbers, ice skaters and dog owners.
Metro Parks is considering expanding the 84-acre park hugging the Scioto River just south of Downtown by an additional 40 acres. Parks officials are considering whether to build a climbing wall, a skate park, a disc golf course, a dog park and other attractions — perhaps even a sledding hill.
The expansion, in addition to expenses already budgeted for the park, would cost $20 million, making the total cost $30 million. Metro Parks Executive Director John O’Meara said that’s why the parks board might ask voters to pass a 10-year, 0.75-mill levy in May.
Besides expanding the Scioto park, the financially strapped city of Columbus has asked that Metro Parks pick up some of the city’s expenses for the new park. That might force Metro Parks to scale back the size of its planned parks near New Albany, Groveport and along the Scioto River in southern Franklin County.
Comments
- cheap: i highly recommend the Millersport sweet corn festival of course,the cor
- Jimmy Mak: Thanks for the write-up! Just to clarify - this is the third year we've do
- Briana Henry: Well, eventually they plan to add more bands from the region...gotta start
- bucki12: I like the business model, but the internet sales part seems like something
- racheltb: I don't see the Ohio Shrimp Fest on the list. It is truly a good time. h
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Scioto Audubon Metro Park might expand
By: Walker
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This park is very exciting and these are all very good ideas, but where are the beer gardens? What about our German heritage asks Herr Wirtz? My genes demand to drink beer outside.
Is the big white area in the middle of the park next to the tracks dedicated for a train station? :wink:
Great job putting the dog park in the least possibly walkable portion.
That’s a great comment Herr Wirtz.
With all of the ridiculous drama every year surrounding where to hold Oktoberfest, I’d hope that the GV Society and BD Society are making sure that “The Green” is big enough to be a permanent home for the event. With all of the available parking in the BD (2 Grange garages, 1 main garage, Kroger, on-street, and the Short St. lots), it would be super easy to set up a parking shuttle to this site…or just walk 3-5 minutes.
The folks who live at the Miranova and the Waterford may disagree with you.
The folks who live at the Miranova and the Waterford may disagree with you.
It’s even closer for the people at Liberty Place.
+1 x100
wow. that’s quite a nice layout
I just sincerely hope that the planned sewer improvements reduce the smell on that part of the river by the time this is finished. I was working down there back in august and it was pretty bad.
I really like this plan. Much better than trying to build another neighborhood here.
Did they just not label the homeless camps on here or is that what River/Park Overlook structures refers to?
we have a “urban” skate park across the river at dodge, well at least until the 70/71 split construction starts.
Truth. It is ill suited to that kind of development for a number of reasons.
I was under the impression that more of this park would be a nature preserve. I’d like to see some parts of this reverted back to that – like the disc golf portion and the spors field portion. Berliner Park is awfully close to duplicate a sports field.
I’m certainly not an expert on birds, but I wouldn’t think this plan would interfere much with the bird sanctuary.
is there an ornithologist in the house?
I’m certainly not an expert on birds, but I wouldn’t think this plan would interfere much with the bird sanctuary.
is there an ornithologist in the house?
I guess I should have phrased that differently. I’d like to see more wilderness area and less developed parkland. For birds and other animals and to give the river back some more of its natural feel.
I agree, this is a great start of a concept for an urban nature park/civic park. Instead of treating the site as 50/50 on park space and development, it shifts to more like 70/30 and will probably become more attractive for a smaller mixed use development in time that will support it.
There is a meeting next week sponsored by ODOT that will look at the impact of 70/71 split on The Whittier Peninsula and Franklinton’s Dodge Park, just across the highway. The proposed Skate Park would be a cool way to link the two together in some way.
I am a big fan of Metro Parks; they do a fantastic job with the tax revenue they have to work with and this will just be one more excellent venue. If you haven’t been down to the Whittier Peninsula drive down and check out all the progress on the Audibon Center….
The folks who live at the Miranova and the Waterford may disagree with you.
It’s even closer for the people at Liberty Place.
And don’t forget the great location between the sewer filtration area and the power plant. :lol:
Honestly, I think being close to the highway is probably doing to be a bigger annoyance. But it just wouldn’t be a dog park if the dog owners didn’t have something to stand around and complain about while their dogs run around and have fun. :lol:
Dogs scare away birds. You can bring Bugsy to my house anytime, but I don’t want him anywhere near my favorite birding spot.
As a skateboarder, I can tell you firsthand that Dodge fucking sucks. It’s what industry experts call a “death trap.”
I’m certainly not an expert on birds, but I wouldn’t think this plan would interfere much with the bird sanctuary.
is there an ornithologist in the house?
Birds come to this section of green space because it sits directly along two major migratory corridors between Central America and Canada. It’s basically a one-stop convenience store: water, shelter, wetlands, plenty of insects and berries.
Light and noise pollution are bigger concerns than a disc-golf course, and the biggest threat to wildlife is the proliferation of honeysuckle and, to a lesser extent, garlic mustard.
That said, we should always push for responsible use of green space.