Maitland marks more parks

If land looks like a park, acts as a park, and is perceived to be a park by the public, then it should be protected as a park, ruled the majority of Maitland’s City Council on Monday by moving to add two more perceived parks to the city’s register of protected heritage lands.

It’s an idea already solidified in the city’s charter – a citizen-petition-prompted amendment in 1990 requires all aesthetically pleasing land perceived as a park in use be classified as heritage land, which can then only be changed in use by voter referendum.

But, members of the city’s Parks and Recreation Advisory Board (PRAB) said, Howell Branch Park on Temple Trail and Hill Recreation Center Park on Hillcrest Avenue had — despite previous PRAB recommendations — been classified as “Government/Other” instead of as parks, leaving them unprotected and up for changes in use to the whims of Council.

“We’re just asking you to preserve and cherish what we have in the parks system,” PRAB Chair Cindi Price said.

While Councilman John Lowndes proposed changing the parks to the requested classification off the bat, Councilman Ivan Valdes suggested the city reconsider the Hill Recreation Center’s distinction. He and Mayor Howard Schieferdecker proposed that the city, while it still had discretion over the land’s use, look into possibly selling or swapping the Center property for land on the west side of Maitland to make a park over there instead.

“We need to come up with a plan to get a west side park … we have a number of parks on the east side, and not one on the west side,” Schieferdecker said. “It takes money, that’s the key.”

That money, he said, has been something the city hasn’t had to fund the purchase of land for a park in western Maitland, and something the leverage of this land on Hillcrest could help with.

But residents urged the Council to respect their wishes, referring back to the 1990 heritage lands amendment, which passed with 90.6 percent of the vote.

“The whole reason for that charter amendment was because they wanted to prevent the very thing you may be considering now, selling the land,” outgoing PRAB member Pushpa Seth said.

“They’re not making anymore land … we need to find ways to maintain what we have,” said longtime PRAB member Elizabeth Schneider-Peele.

Councilmembers Lowndes, Frosch and Goff-Marcil agreed, directing staff to draft paperwork to add the two parks to city’s list of protected heritage lands.

“We all want [a west side park] done, but I don’t think we’re going to get that way from losing park on the east side,” Lowndes said. The Council, he added, needs to respect what the charter amendment asked for, and call a park a park.