John Wesley Powell Audubon

REPORT ON THE EWING PARK BRIDLE PATH MEETING

On 21 January 2010 from 6:00-7:00 pm, the City of Bloomington held a public informational meeting on the status of the portion of Ewing Park known as the Bridle Path. City Officials presenting were Alderwoman Jennifer McDade of Ward 5 (Ewing Park is in her ward), City Manager David Hales, Parks & Recreation Director John Kennedy, and City Attorney Todd Greenburg. The City Hall chambers hosted an overflow crowd.  Handouts were presented covering the Ewing Park Acquisition History, Bridle Path Chronology, Legal Issues, and Future steps along with a map of the area; these are available at: 

http://www.cityblm.org/library/parks/pdfs/Ewing%20Park%20Bridle%20Path%20Packet.pdf

The stated purpose of the meeting was to answer clarification questions, not to receive public opinion or testimony. It was stated that there would be future opportunities for discussion. These are yet to be determined.

The central issue revolved around whether the Bridle Path part of Ewing Park would be declared officially as “surplus land”, therefore eligible for the City to sell to other parties.  The Bridle Path area under deliberation includes a portion of Hedge Apple Woods Natural Area; the map portion of the handout on the aforementioned website shows in red the areas being considered as surplus, including the crosshatched portion that is part of the Natural Area and the access area from Sunset Road. All or part of the Bridle Path area can be declared surplus and then sold, presumably to adjacent landowners (it was unclear at the meeting if only adjacent landowners would be eligible to purchase the land).

It was announced that there is a broader initiative planned to examine potential surplus land owned by the City. City staff will develop a set of criteria to use in evaluating whether or not certain City property is surplus (it was unclear at the meeting what prior criteria had been used to determine which lands would be evaluated). Mr. Hales said such criteria have not yet been developed and no deadline for completing those criteria has been established (none have been developed at the time of this posting on February 8).  However, Mr. Kennedy said that the Parks and Recreation Department will use, in whole or part, the criteria (decision-making goals) as delineated in Part IV of the parks master plan document: http://www.cityblm.org/parks/pdfs/2010ApprovedParksMasterPlanUpdate.pdf

The Parks & Recreation Department will be first to deliberate on whether or not the Bridle Path portion (all areas in red on the aforementioned map) of Ewing Park, in whole or part, meets the criteria of being surplus land.  That recommendation will be sent to Mr. Hales to evaluate and incorporate with other decisions on other potential surplus land. A final report on the decision regarding all potential surplus land will be given to the City Council in the fall and they will make the final decision. Although it has not been determined how the public will be involved in this process, Mr. Kennedy was designated the point person for any questions and he can be reached at:  jkennedy@cityblm.org

Another issue receiving attention at the meeting was the City’s handling of encroachments onto the Bridle Path portion of Ewing Park. Mr. Greenburg stated that in 2001 the City documented a series of encroachments by adjacent landowners. Letters of notification were sent out to those landowners notifying them of the encroachments. Specifics of the letter and the nature/extent of subsequent interaction between the City and the landowners will not be revealed except under a formal FOIA request.  Mr. Greenburg did state that private landowners cannot acquire public property through “adverse possession”, so despite the long time frame under which some encroachments have been on-going without being addressed by the City, the landowner cannot acquire the land through that means.

There were many questions from concerned citizens in the packed room. The meeting adjoined shortly after 7:00 pm although many citizens still had questions and it was unclear when future public forums would be held.

Ewing Park Bridle Path Meeting Report

Property in question is bordered in red blocks.