Davenport dreams of turning this 50-acre, century-old farm into a beautiful park

A slice of a century-old Florida farm could be just the spot Davenport leaders have been dreaming about for a park.

So they quickly bought it before land in the city becomes completely blanketed in subdivisions.

Before approving the purchase, the commissioners envisioned family picnics, a venue for Fourth of July fireworks, music concerts, playgrounds, a dog park and walking trails, among other memory-making features dotting the 50-acre landscape.

City Manager Kelly Callihan added to the wish list for the park, saying it could have amenities similar to Lakeland’s world-class Bonnet Springs Park, such as treehouses and fishing ponds.

Bonnet Springs Park is on 200 acres that was once a train yard along Kathleen Road, with some undeveloped wooded and marsh areas. The park itself comprises 168 acres with some of the other land dedicated to the Florida Children’s Museum and a botanical garden. It was a privately developed project that received donations from some of Polk County’s wealthiest philanthropists.

“It would be a park where we could put a little bit of everything,” Callihan said. “We could build treehouses similar to Bonnet Springs in Lakeland; a park similar to that for this side of the county.”

“This is exciting,” Davenport Mayor Brynn Summerlin said. “Since I came back on this commission a few years ago, with all this growth, I have been saying parks, parks, parks. We need more parks, we need more green space and something the city can control, not a housing development or a CDD (Community Development District).

"Is it expensive? Yes," he said, “It’s not if we can afford it, it’s if we can afford not to do it.”

Summerlin said the city’s Fourth of July event drew 20,000 people at the current 10-acre holiday venue, and he asked the people at the meeting to imagine the potential record attendance levels at a 50-acre park.

“This place just requires imagination,” he said.

Each of the commissioners spoke in support of purchasing the bundle of parcels amounting to 50 acres, which was listed as the Torgersen property on the agenda. For several weeks, the commissioners had toured the site individually. At the meeting, they marveled at the natural beauty they saw with oak trees reminiscent of old Florida and its multi-generational homesteads that are quickly evaporating in the area's red-hot housing market.

The addresses of the several parcels listed at the Polk County Property Appraisers Office included 1442 and 1450 Holly Hill Road, and Del Webb Boulevard. Some of the landowners included Edward J. Torgersen III and George W Glockner III. County records characterized the land as mostly pasture or marsh.

Not one member of the public nor a single commissioners opposed getting the land quickly into the hands of the city. The commission voted 4-0 to purchase the Torgersen property for $4.3 million.

Callihan told the commissioners funding for the purchase of the property would come from some very successful investments by the city’s finance director that brought in interest of $2 million last year; the same interest earnings are anticipated this year. The remaining $300,000 would come from city coffers.

Money to develop the park amenities would have to be found, Callihan said.

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While the deliberations did not cover the city's ongoing costs, Summerlin said naming the park could come down the road for a project expected to take several years to develop.

Tom Fellows, a former 20-year veteran of the City Commission, was among those who spoke in favor of the project.

“This is the single biggest need for this city going forward,” Fellows said. “You have taken care of the infrastructure – the water and the sewer. Now we need some parks for the residents. So get ’r done.”

Judith Torgersen Thompson, a book author and former resident of the Torgersen property, has written books about Polk County and Davenport and she also spoke in support of the project. She told the commission her grandfather homesteaded there in the early 1900s, her father raised her there, and she had chosen to raise her children in the bucolic countryside.

She last visited the property in May with her son and they hoped the property would be preserved.

“He just wanted it to be preserved forever and not be built up,” she said.

This article originally appeared on The Ledger: Davenport dreams of turning this 50-acre, century-old farm into a beautiful park