CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA (CVILLE RIGHT NOW) – Charlottesville’s plans to maintain, improve and expand its parks and recreation offerings will cost about $78.2 million over the next 10 years, according to a report City Council heard during Monday’s meeting. But the council has only funded about 13% of the elements in the plan, City Councilor Michael Payne said.

“The elephant in the room in the discussion is, the parks service master plan has all these big things that we can do. The total cost is close to $80 million. But in our budget we’ve only funded maybe 13% of that,” Payne said. “That’s before you factor in inflation. So, if you look at where things stand with the plan right now, we would only implement it by close to the end of the century at the current funding levels.”

Payne said City Council would have to find ways to fund the project to avoid many of the ideas “sitting on the shelf.”

“Parks & Rec are vital to the quality of life for folks in the area,” Vice Mayor Natalie Oschrin said. “It gives families and kids something to do. It gives access to the outdoors.”

Last spring, City Council approved a “long-range vision for all the investments and improvements we can make throughout our park system,” Payne said.

“It’s a very ambitious and expensive long-term plan to implement everything that’s in there,” Payne said.

Oschrin said the city’s Capital Improvement Plan is only done five years at a time, and Payne noted that not all the elements in the parks report are currently set to be funded.

Oschrin also pointed out that the $78.2 million is the current estimate, but the total could fluctuate based on inflation and changes in construction costs.

Monday, City Parks & Recreation Director Riaan Anthony presented City Council with a progress report on the plan.

Anthony discussed connecting trails, renovating playgrounds, refurbishing restrooms and splash pads, bringing to reality an adaptive recreation center along with an all-accessible/all ability playground, and incorporating the Swords Into Plowshares public art project into parks during his presentation.

Swords Into Plowshares is the project using the melted bronze from the former statute of Gen. Robert E. Lee from Market Street Park into a new piece of public art. City Council had approved placing pieces of art from the project in six city parks, but Anthony said that only three parks will be included.

“The first park is Market Street and this is very important,” Anthony said. “As we went out to the community, the community asked for more of a music venue as it used to be, and now we will have this huge construction which is beautiful baobab tree that was presented to us that they’d like to put this structure within the park.”

Market Street Park plan is also planning amphitheater steps to 2nd St., benches and picnic tables in a wooded grove in the park’s north end, a multipurpose plaza in the center of the park with a decorative surface, an open event lawn on the south side of the park, benches on a meandering path around the park, the preservation of mature and healthy trees already in the park, and improvements to the landscaping.

The baobab tree, according to the Jefferson School Swords Into Plowshare website, is a “pan-African symbolism for wisdom, longevity, and interconnection.”

There are also three eight-by-five-foot sculptures of fruit and seeds from that tree that “extend the welcoming spirit of the mother tree,” according to the Swords Into Plowshares description.

These will be placed in Forest Hills and Belmont parks. Two will be placed near the road at Forest Hills, and one will be placed in the grassy center surrounded by a circular path near the Belmont Park shelter.

The plan also includes an effort continues to connect all the city’s parks through trails, a goal complicated by the fact that land acquisition is difficult, Anthony said.

Also in the master plan is a feasibility study for an adaptive recreation center to go with the all-access/all-availability Bennett’s Village playground now at Pen Park.

Payne asked about partnerships and funding sources overall for what both he and Anthony agreed is an “ambitious” master plan.

He said when the plan was initially approved, one of the things discussed was looking at other localities who had created a new revenue source dedicated just to parks.

Anthony said the Charlottesville Parks Foundation was formed to take on the funding challenges as Payne asked what Anthony thought would be a timeline Council would need to make a dedicated funding mechanism decision.

“I think as the Parks Foundation gets more expedience in the second to third year, I think there will be a continuous conversation with them,” Anthony said. “They’re 100% dedicated to City of Charlottesville Parks capital improvement projects.”

Anthony said the Foundation, since forming in 2024, has been concentrating on fundraising to complete the $3.3 million accessibility build for the Dogwood Vietnam Veterans Memorial.