Lazaro Aleman
ECB Publishing, Inc.
Nearly four months after county officials awarded a contract to an urban design and environmental planning firm to do a feasibility study of the Wacissa River Park with an idea of expanding its recreational offerings, they recently got to hear the study’s results.
On Thursday evening, May 20, Sand County Studios (SCS), a Georgia-based company, presented the findings of its 13-week study to the Jefferson County Commission.
Making the presentation was SCS founder Jim Sipes, and a staff member identified as Ashley.
The two told the commissioners that the study had entailed an assessment of the park’s current facilities and its other features and uses, as well as its potential for expansion.
As part of the study, the two said, they had conducted a survey of all properties within a two-mile radius of the park to determine each parcel’s suitability for acquisition in order to expand the park’s offerings.
The study found that the park’s value lay in its natural beauty, historical environmental and ecological features, as well as its existing facilities. It also found that the park’s undeveloped areas had potential for improvement. They emphasized, however, that theirs had been only a preliminary assessment. It would require a more thorough and in-depth study to determine the types and kinds of specific developments to pursue.
Commissioner Betsy Barfield commented on the use of the park by people from outside the county, who in fact appear to outnumber the locals on most days.
Sipes agreed that such seemed to be the case.
“It’s a great site with amenities,” he said. “I expect that the pressure (of visitors) has increased yearly and with improvements that pressure will continue to increase.”
He offered that in the future, commissioners might want to limit access, if they wanted to relieve pressure on the park. Limiting access to the park was one way, he said. Another was to charge a fee for entry, he suggested.
The question that commissioners would have to answer eventually, he said, was whether they wanted to limit access or expand the park.
In terms of the park’s expansion, Sipes said the study had identified 503 parcels within a two-mile radius of the park and rated each on a five-point scale that took into account several factors, including the parcel’s acreage, characteristics, just value, proximity to the park, access to the river, suitability for acquisition and opportunities for development.
“Two things we didn’t do,” Sipes said. “We didn’t look at ownership or if it was for sale. We only looked at whether it was private or not, excluding public land.”
Sipes said the study had produced a one-page analysis on each of the 503 parcels, ranking each according to its desirability or suitability for acquisition.
The study, he said, had ranked 13 of the parcels as very high in suitability for acquisition, meaning that they had proximity to the park and/or access to the river.
The study had ranked 21 of the parcels as high in suitability for acquisition because they met the requirement of proximity, he said.
And it had ranked 72 of the parcels as medium in suitability, and so on down the line.
“We suggest that you start with the very high suitability either to enhance the park or increase accessibility to the river,” Sipes said.
He also suggested that the county reach out to the state agencies that were guardians of the surrounding public lands to determine if there was willingness there to help relieve pressure on the park.
County officials approved the feasibility study in January on the recommendation of the Wacissa River Park Committee, which evaluated the two bids received.
The contract award followed officials’ earlier decision to seek professional services in the wake of their failure to close a deal on the purchase of a 40-acre property adjacent to the park that they had long been pursuing in hope of expanding the park grounds and its offerings.
Following the incident, commissioners decided that they no longer wanted to expend their time and that of staff in what could well prove to be fruitless pursuits absent a grand plan.
Officials expect to use the study as a guide to help them in their decision-making when it comes to acquiring additional property for the park and to determine what enhancements to make to the park in the future.