
{"id":386,"date":"2007-06-07T11:20:55","date_gmt":"2007-06-07T19:20:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/2007\/06\/07\/town-readies-park-for-construction\/"},"modified":"2007-06-07T11:20:55","modified_gmt":"2007-06-07T19:20:55","slug":"town-readies-park-for-construction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/2007\/06\/07\/town-readies-park-for-construction\/","title":{"rendered":"Town readies park for construction"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>By Kirk Ross<br \/>\nStaff Writer<\/em><\/p>\n<p>The gold-tinted official shovels turned a bit of dirt Monday, marking the beginning of construction for Southern Community Park. But as most speakers noted during opening ceremonies at the edge of the Southern Village park-and-ride lot, getting to this point took a while.<br \/>\n\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Sometimes, you have to stick around for a long time to see ideas come to fruition,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said Moses Carey, chair of the Orange County Board of Commissioners. He praised the foresight of town leaders who 20 years ago purchased the park site. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153That is an investment that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s going to pay dividends for years to come.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<br \/>\nChapel Hill Mayor Kevin Foy said it was an example of good, sound planning.<br \/>\n\u00e2\u20ac\u0153This doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t happen overnight,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Foy said, pointing out that a long line of people invested a lot of time and money to make it happen.<br \/>\nThe groundbreaking was followed by a tour of the park site led by Bill Webster, assistant director of Chapel Hill Parks and Recreation.<br \/>\n<!--more--><br \/>\nWebster said crews will begin to put in tree protection fencing in preparation for grading. Once the fencing is in, the areas to be graded will be opened up for a July plant rescue.<br \/>\nThe 72-acre park is Chapel Hill\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s eleventh and largest park. The first phase is estimated to cost $4.7 million. Plans call for the site to remain half natural areas.<br \/>\nIn addition to grading and utility work, the first phase of the new park includes:<br \/>\n\u00e2\u20ac\u00a2 completion of the Fan Branch greenway through the park to Dogwood Acres Drive;<br \/>\n\u00e2\u20ac\u00a2 construction of three soccer fields near U.S. 15-501;<br \/>\n\u00e2\u20ac\u00a2 all-weather restrooms;<br \/>\n\u00e2\u20ac\u00a2 expansion of a parking area and access to U.S. 15-501;<br \/>\n\u00e2\u20ac\u00a2 a 2-acre dog park and 40-space parking areas south of Dogwood Acres Drive;<br \/>\n\u00e2\u20ac\u00a2 traffic calming, including signs and three speed tables along Dogwood Acres Drive;<br \/>\n\u00e2\u20ac\u00a2 a public art project that will incorporate the thematic elements of earth, air, water, fire, fauna and flora;<br \/>\n\u00e2\u20ac\u00a2 two picnic shelters;<br \/>\n\u00e2\u20ac\u00a2 two basketball courts;<br \/>\n\u00e2\u20ac\u00a2 an in-line hockey court.<br \/>\nThe majority of the construction in the first phase will take place on the main parcel north of Dogwood Acres Drive. South of the road, construction will include undergrounding utility lines, improving trails and creating a meadow area.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Kirk Ross Staff Writer The gold-tinted official shovels turned a bit of dirt Monday, marking the beginning of construction for Southern Community Park. But as most speakers noted during opening ceremonies at the edge of the Southern Village park-and-ride lot, getting to this point took a while. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Sometimes, you have to stick around for&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-386","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/386","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=386"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/386\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=386"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=386"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=386"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}