Rather than sell off the land a city (not DC) decides to create a park -- comment about McMillan Reservoir

McMillan Reservoir, Washington, DC. Photo by Ballhat Guy.

From the Detroit News, "New green space to sprout in Birmingham: Instead of selling the Barnum Center property, $1.5M from bond will help convert it to a park":

...the Birmingham City Commission decided this week to put $1.5 million in park bond money toward converting the Barnum Center property on Purdy into a city park. The commission has also asked the planning board to rezone the 8.3-acre property from residential use to public property.

"The commissioners' actions show they have acted with great vision, and their good deeds will be lauded by members of our community for generations to come," Fill said. "It will not only be a tremendous benefit for my daughter to be able to use park equipment there in addition to fields already on the site, but for the community at large because every area in town needs green space they can enjoy."

The city originally planned to sell the property to a developer, but the City Commission accepted the recommendation of an ad hoc committee that was formed to determine the land's best use. The committee recommended an innovative urban park, said Lauren Wood, staff and services manager for the city.

A rare "use value" victory in the constant struggle between making money from vs. enjoying place. Think of all the construction going on these days in Washington, DC.

This is something that Dan Wolkoff and I also talked about last night, in relation to proposals to develop the McMillan Reservoir, and he presentation he attended Thursday night about proposals by the National Capital Revitalization Corporation to do massive development of this site, one of the larger park-like sites in the Upper Northeast part of the city. (Technically the site is in NW, abutting North Capitol Street.)

-- NCRC McMillan Reservoir webpage
-- Office of Planning: McMillan Reservoir Project
-- DC Preservation League: Most Endangered Places - McMillan Reservoir
-- McMillan Reservoir - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
-- McMillan Reservoir plans: all green or part green? (from Washington Business Journal, 2000)
-- DC moves forward with McMillan reservoir deal (from Washington Business Journal, 2006)

McMillan Reservoir, image from DC Gentrification.

Index Keywords: Growth-Machine; parks