Explanation
Background:
This legislation will authorize the Director of Recreation and Parks to expend up to $2,020,000 for costs associated with the acquisition of the North Columbus Athletic Association (NCAA) Sports Complex, 4625 Westerville Road, and to execute those documents as approved by the City Attorney’s Office, Real Estate Division, necessary for the purchase.
Columbus Recreation and Parks Department is working to provide equitable access to parks in our Columbus neighborhoods as identified in the priorities of the CRPD Master Plan through future land acquisition in the NE portion of Columbus.
The North Central Athletic Association Sports Complex, 4625 Westerville Road, is on the market and provides an opportunity for parkland that provides valuable open space, park access, trail connectivity, and youth and adult sports fields. It has been recently brought to our attention that the 53.5 acre complex is being actively marketed as development property for sale.
An east/west trail connector on the south side of the property is going to be constructed by Rec/Parks this summer, connecting not only to this property, but to the Alum Creek Trail. This would put residents from 3 neighborhoods living around this park space with no developed access within minutes of the site. This amount of potential connectivity to a large park space is rare.
NCAA will increase our ability to serve residents of Columbus as well as provide financial support for the Department’s Sports Section. A worksheet from Sports is attached showing the revenue projections:
Participation in year one would be approximately 73,000 units. This is in units of participation as many teams would use the field space. This number would also build over the first few years as we start to improve the fields. Improvement in the condition of the fields will attract tournaments and larger numbers of people. For example, hosting 10 tournaments would bring approximately 50,000 people alone...
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