Queens' master plan for Tyvola takes shape
Work starts in September on $6 million project
- Doug Smith, The Charlotte Observer, August 5, 2008
Queens University of Charlotte needed athletic facilities, but it was landlocked on its 35-acre Myers Park campus.Three miles away, Mecklenburg County was sitting on park acreage on Tyvola Road in south Charlotte between South Boulevard and SouthPark mall but had no money to develop it.In spring 2006, both got what they wanted with the opening of the 65-acre Queens Sports Complex at Marion Diehl Park, an unusual public-private partnership. Today, it's a Next Big Thing that's growing bigger as the university invests in its master development plan on the county's park acreage. Queens plans to break ground in September on a $6 million construction project that will add a field house/press box and a welcome center to the athletic complex's existing facilities in fall 2009.
Fourteen Queens' varsity sports teams, including track, soccer and lacrosse, use the complex, which is shared with citizens – including seniors and people with disabilities.“Everybody gets to use it,” said Mecklenburg Park and Recreation Director Jim Garges. “We are all about public recreation. The public is our everybody.” Also, he said, the Queens complex is in an area of the county that needs more athletic facilities, and it meshes well with the Marion Diehl Center and the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Senior Center.Garges said the county participates in public-private ventures that benefit the public. It has partnered, for example, with other communities to put more park land in service and with soccer and baseball associations on sports facilities.With Queens, Garges said, “We are working with a partner who needs the same kinds of facilities we do and has a little money to do them.”
The university, which has a 50-year lease on the park land, has pledged to finish its master development plan by 2015. Among other facilities still coming: a tennis center, a grandstand, a baseball field and a softball field. Bill Nichols Jr., vice president of campus planning and services, estimated investment in the first phase athletic fields and structures at $12 million. Completion of the master plan will require another $10 million to $15 million, he said. “This has been a super relationship between Queens and the county,” Nichols said. “The county has bent over backwards to help us do this.” University and county representative meet quarterly, he said, to talk about the partnership and address any issues that might arise.
The venture already is paying off, Nichols said, with Queens teams competing on the athletic fields, people with disabilities using a special adaptive field and seniors exercising on the running track. The complex is American Disabilities Act-compliant and includes accessible facilities for people with mobility limitations or disabilities. Queens officials believe the sports facilities will help the 2,300-student university recruit athletes while improving intramural programs by freeing space available on campus. Today, students drive their cars there or take a team bus, but in the future they will be able to walk or bike. Nichols said the complex is being integrated into the Little Sugar Creek Greenway System, which students can access at Freedom Park near the university campus. Queens also is investigating the potential for a shuttle service between the campus and the sports complex, he said. “We are out here every day during the school year,” Nichols said. “All our home games are played here.” The fenced competition soccer/lacrosse field is made of synthetic “field turf” and is locked when not in use to prevent damage. It can be rented when Queens isn't using it.
The complex is still being discovered by people who aren't familiar with south Charlotte, and first timers might be taken aback by the 22-foot long, 13-foot tall lion mascot students call Rex. The sculpture – believed to be the world's largest standing lion statue – was donated by Irwin “Ike” Belk of the department store family. He also gave the money to build the quarter-mile track, Nichols said. The university and the county say they involved people living near the park in the project from the start. The design was improved and revamped, Queens officials said, after feedback from neighborhood associations. Buffers, for example, were increased to 20 feet to preserve more of the natural landscape.
For Queens, officials say, the benefits of the complex extend beyond athletics. They envision it being used for such academic pursuits as biology and environmental science based on its access to streams and woodland habitats near with the greenway. Similar partnerships might exist elsewhere in the country, Nichols said, “but we believe this is unique to this area.”
Reprinted from “The Next Big Thing”, by Doug Smith, The Charlotte Observer, August 5, 2008.
