PARKVILLE, Mo. — The City of Parkville has added a new park to its system with the final approval of a land transfer between the city and Platte County.
At its Tuesday, Sept. 19 meeting, the Parkville Board of Aldermen approved the second reading of an agreement turning over ownership of the 131-acre Platte Landing Park. The city will “purchase” the park from Platte County at the cost of $1.
Earlier this year, Platte County Commissioners approached City of Parkville officials with a proposal to hand over Platte Landing, which is located adjacent to English Landing Park at the foot of Main Street at the Missouri River. Consolidating ownership of the entire two-park area will create a nearly 200-acre riverfront park, featuring walking trails, dog park, boat ramp, fields and other amenities, along with the potential for future growth.
Also at the meeting, the board approved both the first and second reading of its updated partnership agreement with the Army Corps of Engineers to perform a wetland restoration project in Platte Landing Park.
Platte County purchased the property that became Platte Landing Park from the Kringle family in 2008 with the intention of creating a second riverfront park, using funds from the one-half cent parks, recreation and stormwater sales tax.
In 2011, the city and Platte County entered into a memorandum of understanding for the cooperative planning, development and management of the new park. The city pledged to handle daily operation andmaintenance with the county footing the bill for major capital improvements. Due to budgetary concerns, the project was scaled back, but opened to the public in 2014 with an off-leash dog park and federally-funded boat ramp into the Missouri River.
The city handled mowing, tree pruning, trash removal, trail surface maintenance and minor road maintenance. It also raised much of the funding necessary to complete the trail and give Parkville the loop trail necessary to host larger 10K race events.
Additionally, as part of the city’s parks master plan conducted last year, baseball fields, multi-use fields and a the wetland restoration project are slated for the park.
As noted by Parkville director of public works Alysen Abel, taking over ownership of the park from Platte County gives the city greater control over the development of park programming and amenities, including the wetlands project, which earlier this year received lackluster support from the Platte County Commission.
Parkville considers the wetland restoration project key to its future plans for Platte Landing, as dirt removed from the restoration site can be used to build up future ball fields. This includes a future lacrosse field, as the city recently approved a partnership agreement with Park Girls Lacrosse to construct that league’s home field in Platte Landing Park.
As part of the transfer agreement, the city would continue to seek some financial assistance from Platte County, primarily in the form of the Platte County Parks and Recreation Outreach Grants, which are awarded each year during the lifespan of the parks tax. Platte County will make a one-time capital maintenance fund payment of $236,000, to help offset future improvement costs for the next 20 years.
The city will assume responsibility for the existing agreement with the Missouri Department of Conservation for maintenance of the boat ramp and access drive.