Harris Township could develop new Granger park in deal with St. Joseph County parks board

GRANGER — An idea is surfacing that may, at last, create a park on land that the county has owned at rural Anderson and Beech roads since 1999.

The St. Joseph County Parks board and Harris Township are considering a deal where the township would lease the 115-acre parcel from the county and develop a portion of it into a park.

The parks board will vote on the lease and memorandum of understanding at its meeting at 9 a.m. Aug. 20 at Bendix Woods County Park.

If approved, Harris Township Trustee Ken Lindsay hopes that, after some preliminary work, the public may be able to access the park in 2025.

The promise of a full, county-owned park faded over the winter. Last year, other county officials had pushed to build a new county garage on seven acres of the Anderson property. So, county officials budgeted $2.7 million of federal American Rescue Plan money for the garage at Anderson Road ($1 million) and for various park projects ($1.7 million). A park bond may have helped to finance building the park, too.

But neighbors pushed back on the garage , citing worries of potential contamination through the low water table. So, county officials ended up buying an alternative site for the garage on Alexander Drive early this year, a project estimated at $5 million.

Then park officials connected with Lindsay for a possible solution, knowing how much residents of the highly populated Granger area have been asking for another park.

“I’ve been begging the county for 24 years to do something with it,” St. Joseph County Parks Board President Larry Catanzarite said of the Anderson site, which the parks board bought in 1999. “From our standpoint, if he (Lindsay) does anything with it, at least it would be usable.”

What park may look like

The potential park may likely feature some basic parking, a natural-surface trail and portable toilets, Catanzarite said. Parks board members and Lindsay say they’ve generally discussed some ideas but haven’t yet decided on anything.

It would be limited to what the township can afford. Lindsay said the township may have about $400,000 to develop the park but emphasized that it’s still early in the process.

Dan Schaetzle, the county council member who represents the district, was hoping to provide that amount to the township from county funds, per Lindsay’s request. But, after some political disputes within the council, he said, it looked as if he couldn’t secure support for the funding, at least for now.

Lindsay, wanting to get it done, said it isn’t ideal, but the township will muster the funding “mostly due to years of tight financial management.”

The township doesn’t have a parks department or park staff, but it runs two parks, one at Elm Road and one at Brummitt Road.

“Shade and seating are important, I've learned over the years,” Lindsay said, noting how the township added trees and a “good-looking pavilion” to the Brummit Road park. “I tend to spend a lot of time on design, and ways to minimize maintenance needs due to our lack of staff. Creativity is key, as are volunteers.”

Just recently, Granger Community Church volunteers helped to lay mulch at the Elm Road park to define a path through a prairie that’s currently being restored.

By contrast, a county park may have had looping trails, paved parking, a pavilion and play equipment. Staff would have maintained it regularly and organized programs.

Whatever the township develops at the site now and in the future, Catanzarite said, will have to be approved by the parks board.

How the lease would work

He said the lease, for $1 per year, would be renewable every five years, with the option that the parks board could drop the lease at any time that it felt the park wasn’t meeting its expectations. Because Linsday is an elected official, Catanzarite noted, it also offers the parks board an option in case a future trustee loses interest in the park.

“We don't want to lose control of the property,” Catanzarite said.

He said the lease would be similar to the one that the University of Notre Dame holds for the ND-LEEF portion of St. Patrick’s County Park in South Bend. There, Notre Dame runs experiments through a controlled ecosystem at the east end of the park, though the public still has access to trails around it.

Officials say they haven’t decided yet how much of the 115 acres would be a park, but the agreement would allow Harris Township to sublease the remainder for farming. Ever since the county has owned the property, it has leased most of it to farmers, apart from a wooded portion. That, Catanzarite said, has generated a “relatively insignificant” income for the parks department.

Corn currently grows at the site, but Catanzarite said the board would want a shorter crop, like soybeans, to ensure a more open view for park users.

He particularly likes Gast Ditch as a park element, with its clear water and sandy bottom. The ditch, more like a creek, he said, runs along the southeast corner of the property.

Although Lindsay’s concepts for a park aren’t as big as a county park, Catanzarite said, “It sounded like more sense than letting it sit there empty.”

Find reporter Joseph Dits on Facebook at SBTOutdoorAdventures or 574-235-6158 or jdits@sbtinfo.com .

This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: Harris Township could develop new Granger park in deal with St. Joseph County parks board