THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, January 31, 1996 TAG: 9601310391
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY ELIZABETH THIEL, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHESAPEAKE LENGTH: Medium: 69 lines
In the heart of an area being overrun by new housing developments, city officials got the deed Tuesday to 225 acres of bare farmland and forest.
The Deep Creek property, which city officials purchased last week from the original owners for nearly $1.6 million, will be used for a park with baseball fields and other recreational facilities. The public will be asked to help decide what will go there.
It was a welcome acquisition for residents of a city where an exploding population has created an ever-increasing need for public recreational sites. Unlike other local cities, for example, Chesapeake has no public pools or 18-hole public golf courses. There are very few bicycle or jogging trails.
People involved with the city's popular baseball and softball programs say they are frustrated by the lack of fields for practices and games.
``We need parks like this in all sections of the city,'' said Steve W. Haywood, 40, president of Chesapeake Little League, as he stood across the street from the muddy fields rimmed with trees.
The land is on George Washington Highway, a little more than a mile from the bridge across the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway.
Deep Creek is among the city's fastest-growing areas, with residential developments mushrooming beyond the city's capacity to cope.
Mary Wright Thrasher, whose father bought the 225-acre site in the 1930s, said her father would not have wanted the land cleared for housing.
``My father loved nature and the outdoors,'' she said. ``He would be so happy to know that this is going to be a recreational facility and that the beauty of the land will continue.''
Mayor William E. Ward said that City Council traditionally has given recreational facilities low priority compared to other pressing needs such as schools, roads and sewers.
But he said Tuesday that he hopes the new park will signal a change in direction.
He also called upon the private sector to help develop new cultural and recreational activities for Chesapeake residents. And he said the public should support future referendums calling for money to be spent on recreational facilities.
``There's so much more that we need to do,'' he said.
The city now has 1,192 acres of land dedicated to parks, not including the 225 acres added Tuesday.
The Parks and Recreation Department is asking the City Council to spend $1.9 million more over the next year to purchase more land for recreational facilities. The council is expected to decide over the next couple of months whether to approve that request as part of the five-year capital improvement budget.
``We're looking at the growth areas of Chesapeake,'' said Parks and Recreation Director Claire R. Askew.
Askew said it's important to buy land now, while the city is still growing, ``so our grandchildren and our great-grandchildren and our great-great-grandchildren will say, `I'm so glad they had the foresight to plan for the future.' ''
The city will hire a consulting firm to draft a master plan for developing the land, Askew said. The firm will be directed to hold public hearings to get citizens' opinions on what kinds of recreational facilities should be offered there. ILLUSTRATION: Map
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