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Home > Blogs > Butler County News and Issues > Archives > 2008 > September > 11 > Entry
The future of VOA Park
The first phase of Butler County’s largest park project is expected to cost roughly $10.6 million and include facilities for soccer, sand volleyball, basketball and a playground.
See a detailed map of the future Voice of America Park in West Chester Twp. here.
Mostly, it’ll include soccer. Phase I includes 19 soccer and multi-purpose fields. Nine of those fields might include new turf, officials said.
Butler County MetroParks Director Jon Granville said the park’s business model relies on hosting regional tournaments and soccer is a major draw.
Granville said the first phase has a high price tag because it includes many of the water, electrical and other infrastructure improvements needed for later phases.
The master planning firm McGill Smith Punshon is still putting together cost estimates for those later phases, but they will include a ropes course, baseball diamonds, concession stands, shelters, natural habitat, thousands of parking spaces and miles of hiking trails.
Other popular amenities including the dog park and fishing lake are slated to stay.
The plan was created with input from a 17-member user group.
As for when any of this is built, “a lot of this will be driven by when the funds are available private or public,” Granville said.
After recently refinancing one of its properties, MetroParks only has $1.8 million in its reserves, according to board President Edward Dwyer. He said the agency is planning a major capital campaign to raise the difference.
Since Phase I is so much to bite off, Dwyer wants to break it down into smaller pieces. “What we want to do is isolate what are the monetary hurdles we have in front of us,” he said.
MetroParks will likely start with the infrastructure improvements outlines in Phase I while the subsequent phases are being designed. The agency has already started grading an amphitheater there and expanding the lake.
“The other challenge we have is to make sure its usable throughout,” Dwyer said, stressing that they will try to work around the increasing number of people using the 400-plus-acre park in West Chester Twp.
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