Land purchased for Heritage Park expansion

Land purchased for Heritage Park expansion

MACCLENNY, FL - The City of Macclenny recently used funds from a FERDAP (Florida Department of Environmental Protection Recreational Development Assistance Program) grant to acquire two acres of land which will be used to expand Heritage Park. Owner Brian Yarbrough was paid $101,246 with closing costs, for the property that is directly behind the historical-themed park on Sandra Street.

The city originally applied for $150,000 from the state program, but their awarded funds were trimmed to $101,708 by the legislature in this year's austere budget.

According to Macclenny Administrative Assistant Melissa Thompson, the city had planned in addition to the land acquisition for expanding the parking including handicap access, to use the funds for a playground, picnic facilities and some type of basketball court. However the state funding cutback and land purchase price means that those items will have to be tabled for the time being.

The road leading into the site will have to have major improvements in order to handle more traffic.

"They (referring to state officials) called and asked if we would still want the remainder of the funds. Of course we would have liked the whole amount, but the city wasn’t about to turn down the chance to go ahead and acquire the land," said Thompson. She added that Macclenny has intentions of pursuing further funding in the future.

As part of the grant application requirements, the tract had been appraised at $104,200 by James M. Smith Appraisal Service. The state has a specific list of firms who are qualified to do the certified appraisals.

The city has three years to complete development of the parking facility, as submitted in their development plan. That time will likely be needed as there is one major obstacle to insuring easy access to the planned parking lot. City officials are banking on a joint venture with the county to  upgrade conditions on the rarely used road.

The only current access to the property is via Sandra Street, which is a county owned dirt road. Just to get to Sandra Street, motorists have to travel over another dirt road (Rita Street).

"There are definitely going to have to be some major improvements to get access to the property," said Assistant City Manager Roger Yarborough. "It is a county road and I don’t know or haven’t heard of any plans yet on what we are going to do on it."

Already dealing with the demands of maintaining more than five hundred miles of dirt roads,

where thousands of county residents make their home, county commissioners have been hard pressed to find the funds to pave more than a few of those rural roads in the past few years.

The property is presently the site of rental trailers owned by Mr.Yarbrough. They were not part of the purchase and will be removed.