City leaders support south-side park, want long-term maintenance plan

With the development of a major park on Greenwood’s south side in the works on the strength of the capital projects sales tax initiative, city leaders on Monday pledged their support for the venture — but also want to see a long-term maintenance plan for the entire recreational portfolio.

“The 1 penny sales tax is great for building, but then we’ve got to take care of these, so staff has got to grow. We need to not just worry about building it, we need a long-term plan on how to maintain these,” City Council member Niki Hutto told her colleagues during a Monday work session. “There is still not a concrete plan of, ‘how are we going to sustain these things?’”

After years of planning by city leaders and south-side residents, the 13.5-acre Greenwood Mills Foundry site will be transformed from a brownfield to a community-anchoring recreational space using $1.75 million from the voter-approved penny sales tax.

City Manager Charlie Barrineau said an actual park opening likely won’t take place until 2019, but officials aren’t waiting for the money to come through before they start planning.

“As soon as the money is available, I want to be able to build,” he said. “It’s going to take us a year or more to do all the visioning and be ready to go.”

Currently, the land is owned by the Greenwood Housing Authority’s nonprofit arm, which bought it from Greenwood Mills in 2004. City Council provided the authority with $50,000 to demolish and remove the old foundry structure.

On Monday, Barrineau will make a formal request for the authority’s nonprofit to cede ownership of the land to the city, which would then sign an agreement with the state Department of Health and Environmental Control on a “non-voluntary cleanup contract.”

That action protects the city from any environmental liability with an agreement that officials will implement a state-approved cleanup and redevelopment plan. By the summer, Barrineau said the council intends to ask the Housing Authority to deed the property – which requires authority board approval – for construction of a public park.

Next fall, Barrineau said Greenwood plans to apply for a $200,000 cleanup grant through the federal Environmental Protection Agency, which can’t be done without the state agreement and direct ownership of the property.

“In essence, the city intends to leverage the fact that we have anticipated CPST revenue to secure grant funds,” Barrineau said in December. “Cleanup funds could assist the city to remove contaminated materials and implement a plan to cap (them) on site.”

Another revenue stream could be the state Revolving Brownfield Loan Fund that can also be the promise of dedicated money from the penny sales tax to secure a non-refundable grant.

Originally Published by Index-Journal on:Feb 8, 2017

By ADAM BENSON abenson@indexjournal.com

Article Link: https://www.indexjournal.com/news/city-leaders-support-south-side-park-want-long-term-maintenance-plan/article_bc9c1c27-2683-5cbb-b60a-c3f8110dce7f.html