Residents of Albemarle County got a look at the conceptual plans for Biscuit Run State Park this week.
At a Wednesday community meeting at the County Office Building-Fifth Street, county officials unveiled maps of the 1,190-acre space based on the results from earlier community meetings and a survey. The current plan places the main entrance on Scottsville Road just south of Avon Street Extended, and the park could have hiking and horse trails, athletic fields, open space, campsites and a special events space, among other amenities.
“Community engagement is the foundation of this process,” said David Anhold, of landscape architecture and planning firm Anhold Associates.
No more than 5 percent of the parkland will be covered in impervious surfaces, and 80 percent will remain forestland, according to the agreement between the county and the Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation.
Biscuit Run initially was planned to be an 800-acre subdivision with a 400-acre park, but the development did not come to fruition in the wake of the Great Recession. The state purchased the property in 2009, and the county this year signed a lease for it after state funding for the park never materialized.
Information from the meeting will be incorporated into a master plan. After potentially one more community meeting, the final design will go before the Board of Supervisors and the DCR for approval.
The presentation, which includes the conceptual renderings, can be found here.
