The site recommendations

My column this week is going to focus on all the hoopla surrounding the proposed tennis center, and I was fortunate enough to be able to get a good number of viewpoints and lots good information for it as well. The problem, of course, is that it's difficult to cram all of that information into a 750-word column, so I'm going to try and break up some of the more interesting pieces and some of the background of this discussion in a couple of blog posts.

But - and as I put forward in my column - this is a project that has to be built. It's the law and, as Blake said a few weeks back, there's nothing you can do to overturn a voter-approved, state law-binding project ... short of Gov. Sonny Perdue deciding to wade into this thing, and that's about as likely as, well, Gov. Sonny Perdue wading into anything Athens-related.

This first post will deal with the three site recommendations which are Bishop Park, Southeast Clarke Park and the Athens YWCO.

Locating the tennis center, and its 20 courts, at Bishop Park would dramatically change the existing landscape of the facility. It would devour the recreational field that fronts Sunset Drive all the way down to Oglethorpe Avenue, and it would take with it at least one existing baseball field. Parking would a primary issue as well, and it could displace the Athens Farmer’s Market, thus jeopardizing the future of the popular event.

Likewise, the renovations to Southeast Clarke Park pose their own concerns. Locating the tennis courts off of Lexington Road would result in the removal of existing baseball fields and wipe out future plans for a concession stand, library and gathering area.

Moving the courts to Whit Davis Road is also problematic. When the park was built in 2003, local officials assured nearby residents most of the facilities would be centered off of Lexington Road, thus minimizing light pollution and increased traffic.

In all, this would result in a significant disruption of existing services. At Bishop Park, more than 13,000 users would be displaced, while more than 6,000 users at Southeast Clarke Park would be affected.

The scope of renovations required at Bishop Park and Southeast Clarke Park figure to be quite extensive. Both sites will need excessive work when it comes to grading, property improvements and enhancements, and the work needed will more than likely chew up all of the existing funding

The Athens YWCO is another animal entirely as it is private property, though, by being a non-profit entity, is already off the county's tax rolls. Selling the property to a private owner, of course, would put it back on the tax digest which isn't a bad thing at all given the budgetary crisis confronting all local governments, and that ought to be considered as well in the final analysis.

The property's 16 acres are valued $1.6 million or roughly $100,000 per acre. The Site Selection Committee reviewed a parcel of land that was approximately 10 acres is size, thus suggesting it would be about $1 million in value.

The Athens-Clarke County Commission, faced with shrinking sales tax revenue, made the determination that it would not spend money on land acquisition in a smart attempt to maximize funding. However, one thing that a few folks have mentioned to me that I admit I hadn't even considered is that the YWCO site actually is the most ready location to begin renovative work on given that it's already properly graded for the construction of tennis courts.

According to Court Makers, a tennis court construction firm located in Atlanta, it costs approximately $35,000 to build one tennis court on already level, graded land. Some basic math on my part shows that 18 courts would cost $630,000 (if the land at the YWCO is properly graded prior to court construction). The estimates from Athens-Clarke County in the project summary sheet for the tennis center project $50,000 per court (or $900,000 for 18 courts).

It's plausible, then, with this anecdotal evidence, to think that it might not be as cost prohibitive to locate the tennis center at the YWCO (plus you'd get the added bonus of keeping the popular facility in Athens-Clarke County and not upsetting the users of the other facilities). Again, it may be cost-prohibitive, but we won't know for sure until we get a cost analysis of all the sites done.