"In the coming years, McIntire Park will lose land to the Meadowcreek Parkway and a YMCA athletics center, reducing the greenspace in the heart of Charlottesville.

But a new group has an ambitious plan to remake the park into an environmental refuge and tourist attraction — by building a botanical garden.

It hopes to replace the park’s nine-hole golf course, which will lose at least two holes to the new road, with a 40-acre network of trails, plants, trees and flowers. The garden, advocates say, would provide a visually stunning attraction, an educational experience for children and a recreational magnet that would draw visitors from across Virginia.

“The opportunities it affords are just so wonderful and complements everything Charlottesville has, is and wants to be,” said Helen Flamini, who is spearheading the effort. “It would be right in the center of Charlottesville and it could be the city’s crowning jewel.”

Flamini and her group envision McIntire Park eventually rivaling the renowned Lewis Ginter botanical gardens in Richmond, with an added bonus in that the garden would be a short walk to downtown Charlottesville.

“This is something that people in the area to visit Monticello or [the University of Virginia] would check off their list. It would be a place to see,” said Peter McIntosh, who is helping organize the botanical garden proposal.

So far, city leaders are enthusiastic about the idea. The city’s parks and recreation advisory committee gave it glowing reviews last week and city staff has lauded the proposal.

“This matches up with some of the needs city residents have expressed for natural areas and respecting the landscape in Charlottesville,” said Mike Svetz, head of the parks and recreation department.

The greatest obstacle likely will not be the city but money. Flamini estimates that $12 million to $15 million would be needed to pay for the design and build the garden’s infrastructure, including access roads, trails, an irrigation system and a visitors center.

That figure does not include the cost of plants and flowers, greenhouses and conservatories, and amenities such as water fountains. The total price tag, spread over years if not decades, could be north of $50 million, McIntosh estimates.

In Flamini’s vision, the city would lease the land to a nonprofit but not provide any funding for the project. The garden would be built solely on donations from the community, with new amenities and gardens added every few years as more money becomes available.

The organizers recognize that raising tens of millions would be a hardy challenge, but believe the idea will spark the imagination of residents, who will then open their wallets.

“There should be enough money to fund a botanical garden, but what that becomes is up to the generosity, leadership and vision of the community,” McIntosh said.

A garden in McIntire Park has been floated before. A resident committee tasked with planning the east side of the park in 2004 recommended a conservatory or arboretum be built there, along with a recreational pond, which could also serve as a stormwater management system for the parkway.

Last year the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers shot down the pond idea, and the city will start a new planning process for that side of the park later this year. As part of that effort, the city is likely to consider the botanical gardens.

The biggest question the city faces is what to do with the park’s golf course, which is used by many students because of its $2 course fees. With the loss of at least two holes, many expect the city to look for ways to replace the course.

While those in the golfing community would be upset at the loss of the course, the botanical garden would reach more people, according to members of the parks committee, some of whom are golfers.

“Golf is a wonderful sport but it engages a fraction of the community,” said Sallie Brown, a member of the parks committee. The botanical garden “is a whole community involvement.”" (Seth Rosen, The Daily Progress, June 22, 2008)