NEWBERRY — The Alachua County Commission plans to vote Tuesday on $900,000 in additional funding for a new community park on the former West End Golf Course property.
The Parks and Open Space department will recommend the commissioners to approve $500,000 of Tourist Development Tax reserves for capital improvements and to revise its 10-year master plan to make the site a community park, which would allow the use of $400,000 in impact fees.
The funding may reach up to a $6.78 million budget in fiscal year 2025, according to the meeting agenda.
The 75-acre property has served as a recreational area since its opening in 1969. The county approved the purchase of the land May 28 for $3.8 million from the Viking Companies, a Celebration Pointe real estate developer.
“For this particular piece of property, I would hope that they would be able to make it something that everybody would be happy with and able to use,” said Susan Prewitt, 82, vice president of the West End Community Alliance for Recreation and Education, a nonprofit organization that aims to keep the former West End Golf Course property a public green space.
Prewitt, who worked at the golf course as a staff member for four years, also said she hopes the park is accessible to older people who like to walk and do outdoor activities.
The site is also expected to be used as an outdoor facility to host the 2025 World Masters Athletics Indoor Championships. The weeklong indoor and outdoor competition to be held in Gainesville and Jonesville next spring will have 24 athletic events including cross country, discus, hammer and javelin with over 4,000 participants from around the world.
Located at 12830 W. Newberry Road in Jonesville, the park will host the outdoor competitions while the primary facility for indoor events will be the Alachua County Sports and Events Center located in Celebration Pointe.
Alachua County Capital Projects Coordinator Ed Williams said once the commissioners approve an official budget, the design process will start and will take “approximately a year from where it begins.” The construction phase will follow and “could take several years if it’s done in the anticipated phased approach to coincide with budget constraints,” according to Williams.
“It’s exciting to be involved in a project like this and to be able to work with the community,” Williams said.
Still, some homeowners raised concerns at a community meeting on Aug. 13 at the University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences extension office and Ag Auditorium. Specifically, property owners said they were worried about potential future access to the park from their neighborhood streets that are privately maintained.
Steve Moore, president of the homeowners association that represents the 155 homeowners in the Villas of West End North, sent an email Sept. 4 to Anna Prizzia, the Alachua County commissioner for District 3.
Moore, who declined an interview with WUFT News, explained in his message to Prizzia that “aerial views of the site showed future access points to the course that pass through the neighborhood in the west end of Northwest 11th Place and 12th Lane.”
He also made it clear to Prizzia that the homeowners association is “adamantly opposed to any access points from our property to the golf course being included in the plans for future use of the golf course,” his email said.
Williams ensured that the county “will not be including them in our planning process moving forward and will instead focus on internal property development to provide access to any future amenities.”
The renovation will not affect homeowners in the perimeter as private streets into their neighborhoods will not be considered in the plan, he said.
“We’ve dropped that and any sort of circulation through the park, vehicular or otherwise, will just have to be handled within the park property,” Williams said.
James Andrisin, 47, a physician who has lived near West End for 24 years, attended the community meeting hosted by the county on Aug. 13 to learn more about the renovation plan.
“If we don’t allow people that are living in neighborhoods to have access to parks and nature, then they’re not going to appreciate nature,” Andrisin said.
The course was one of the first places Andrisin said he played golf when he moved from Parma, Ohio, to Oakleigh, Florida, in 2000.
“I think it was a great asset to the community and I was sad to see it close,” Andrisin said.
He cherishes memories of taking his twin boys to play golf with him a few years ago before the golf course closed in 2019.
Vicky Hope, 78, a Tara West End resident who moved from Daytona Beach in 1960, said she supports the renovation plan as long as the county does not build more roads that increase traffic in the area.
“I wouldn’t want a busy road in front of my house,” Hope said.
Danielle McGriff, 50, a resident of Tioga Town for 40 years, said she envisions pickleball and basketball courts as well as a food truck park where residents can have an outdoor space.
“Anything that can encourage and entice family and children to get outside, get fresh air, talk to real people and not be on their phones, I think that inspires the residents of Alachua County to stay active and get outside,” McGriff said.
Williams said the county is expecting a visit from the World Masters committee in December to inspect construction compliances at the site.
“Hopefully (to be able to) come up with something that the county, as well as residents of that area, will be very happy with for many years to come,” Williams said.
