CUTTING GRASS? CITY MAY CONVERT PARKLAND.Byline: Charles F. Bostwick Staff Writer LANCASTER - City officials are prepared to slice off more than five acres of Lancaster City Park and use it for a shopping center shopping center, a concentration of retail, service, and entertainment enterprises designed to serve the surrounding region. The modern shopping center differs from its antecedents—bazaars and marketplaces—in that the shops are usually amalgamated into if that's what it takes to keep the Costco warehouse store. City officials are considering taking the park's southwest corner and using it with adjoining vacant land for a commercial development that they won't identify, but which fits the scope of the Costco expansion that the city has been trying for years to expedite. ``That park is the jewel of the park system of the city of Lancaster The City of Lancaster (2002 population: 133,914) is a local government district with city status in Lancashire, England. Its main town is Lancaster, from which it obtained its city status. Other towns in the district include Morecambe, Heysham, Slyne, and Carnforth. ,'' Mayor Frank Roberts Frank Roberts may refer to:
But at least two former mayors are against the plan, saying Lancaster has too little park space already and that there are plenty of other places to build a store. ``There's certain things that are sacrosanct sac·ro·sanct adj. Regarded as sacred and inviolable. [Latin sacr  s - one of those is parks,'' said former Mayor George Root, who was on the council from 1990 to 1994. Tim Hayers, a councilman from 1977 to 1982 and mayor in 1981-82, noted that the parkland that could be lost is nearly as big as 6.7-acre Jane Reynolds Park downtown. Hayes added: ``I think the most disturbing thing is their official silence.'' The plan was discovered by a woman who was walking her dog through the park last month and noticed a white line painted across the grass in the southern end of the 70-acre park, just short of the southernmost softball softball, variant of baseball played with a larger ball on a smaller field. Invented (1888) in Chicago as an indoor game, it was at various times called indoor baseball, mush ball, playground ball, kitten ball, and, because it was also played by women, ladies' field fences, and yellow marks on trees. Robin Collins said she asked a park gardener, then other city employees, and was told that in fact the line represented the limit of land the city was considering using for the Costco store. She was told the area extends 217 feet into the park and is 1,220 feet wide, covering about six acres. The area has a picnic site, more than 100 mature trees and a grassy space popular for informal soccer games and is popular among people walking their dogs, Collins said. ``This is a very popular area. It's a very peaceful area of the park,'' Collins said. Since making the discovery, she's been rounding up people to attend the 7 p.m. June 18 Planning Commission Noun 1. planning commission - a commission delegated to propose plans for future activities and developments commission, committee - a special group delegated to consider some matter; "a committee is a group that keeps minutes and loses hours" - Milton Berle meeting at City Hall at which the shopping center plan is scheduled to be considered. The plan, submitted by the city's redevelopment agency, calls for a 150,000-square-foot commercial building, a 2,500-square-foot fast-food restaurant and a 12-pump gasoline station. City officials say they can't identify the business proposed for the center, or disclose how much parkland might be used, because they have not yet signed an agreement with the company. One city official said the land in question is slightly more than five acres. Disclosing negotiating points could hurt the city's bargaining position bargaining position n to be in a strong/weak bargaining position → estar/no estar en una posición de fuerza para negociar bargaining position n , they say. The site was picked by the company, and the parkland is needed to meet its requirements. ``Otherwise we wouldn't do it,'' City Manager James Gilley said. While refusing to identify the company, the mayor said the city needs the sales tax sales tax, levy on the sale of goods or services, generally calculated as a percentage of the selling price, and sometimes called a purchase tax. It is usually collected in the form of an extra charge by the retailer, who remits the tax to the government. revenue. A store of the size proposed could provide $400,000 a year to the city treasury, he said. No other site was acceptable to the company, Roberts said. ``Everything was tried,'' he said. The mayor added that the city is developing the 25-acre Whit Carter Park on Sierra Highway Sierra Highway is a road in Southern California, United States. It runs from Tunnel Station near the north limit of the City of Los Angeles, where it intersects with San Fernando Road and Foothill Boulevard, as well as Interstate 5, and continues north to Mojave, mostly paralleling south of Avenue H, and has plans for two others in the northeastern part of the city and at the present Antelope Valley This article is about the Los Angeles County region. For the census-designated place in Wyoming, see Antelope Valley-Crestview, Wyoming. The Antelope Valley Fairgrounds n. pl. 1. same as fairground. . ``We're going to have lots of parks,'' Roberts said. CAPTION(S): photo, map Photo: (color) Sarah Clifton, left, former Lancaster Mayor Tim Hayes, Robin Collins and Arnie Wilenken survey a five- to six-acre stretch of Lancaster City Park that may be paved over to make way for a shopping center. Jeff Goldwater/Staff Photographer Map: Proposed park reduction |
|
||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion