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City OKs park swap

Under an agreement, the City Council approved Thursday the city would exchange 25 acres of Berkeley Park for Edwards Park property at Five Points.

By Lightning Reports, Published: June 3, 2021

A property swap that exchanges 25 acres of the city-owned Berkeley Park for the county-owned Edwards Park property at Five Points advanced Thursday night with the Hendersonville City Council's adoption of a resolution authorizing the agreement.

Under the agreement, the city would get the property containing scout cabins plus a $100,000 payment from the Henderson County School Board. The school system would get the Berkeley Park land and the historic Berkeley Spinners stadium. City Council members and administrators and School Board members and school administrators have been negotiating the swap for months.

The city wants the Edwards Park land as a new location for the Laura Corn Mini-Golf course because it plans to locate a new Fire Station 1 on the mini-golf site. Hendersonville High School plans to pay varsity baseball games at the historic ballfield and eventually the School Board wants to develop other ballfields and tennis courts at Berkeley Park.

The proposed agreement, which the School Board could take up on June 30, reserves for the city an easement at Berkeley Park to construct a public greenway or walking track around the perimeter of the 25 acres the city would convey to the county.

The agreement also says that, "Except for the historic baseball field and any future athletic fields built, the public shall have access to the 25 acres at Berkeley Park" once it's owned by the School Board, "including the proposed lighted tennis courts, at no cost to the public."

The Edwards Park land the city would get excludes the parking lot in the front of the VFW post, which the county recently purchased and plans to renovate for veterans services and other public uses. The agreement says the city and county would work out arrangements for sharing the parking among patrons of the VFW building and Edwards Park.