The Great Smoky Mountains National Park -- sponsored by Pulte Homes?
The Blue Ridge Parkway -- sponsored by Weyerhaeuser?
The Mecklenburg County Courthouse -- sponsored by the Paper Doll Lounge?
You don't see those kinds of signs because parkways, courthouses and other public venues are owned by you, me and the rest of the citizens. They're not for sale as advertising opportunities.
Or are they?
A proposal working its way through the Mecklenburg County Park and Recreation bureaucracy would offer up our county parks for "sponsorships," as in, "Freedom Park -- sponsored by Scott Clark Toyota."
It's an abominable idea.
The nonprofit Friends of Freedom Park group thinks so, too. Group spokesman Robert FitzPatrick grew up near the park, moved away for decades but returned a few years back. It offends him that a public amenity -- a park dedicated to the city in 1949 by the Charlotte Lions Club, to honor of veterans -- would be turned over to commercialism.
"It's a trend of privatizing what used to be the commons," FitzPatrick says.
The draft policy states, "In a time of shrinking public dollars, sponsorships provide an effective means of generating new revenue and alternative resources to support Park and Recreation programs and facilities."
Shrinking public dollars? FitzPatrick points out that the county's general fund is growing, and the Park and Recreation Department's budget is, too, although as a percentage of the general fund it's shrinking.
Mecklenburg's park department -- there is no "Charlotte Park Department" -- has had to scrap for money for years. I sympathize with the department's plight and I understand why the idea of enticing businesses to boost a scanty budget would be attractive.
But it's a tacky way to find money. A far better option exists.
State law lets cities and counties, in their subdivision ordinances, require subdivision developers to either donate land or pay a fee to buy land for recreation. Many N.C. cities and counties do this. Charlotte and Mecklenburg don't. Near as anyone can remember, the idea has never even been proposed here.
Wake County adopted such a provision about four years ago. It requires developers to set aside, in recreation land, one thirty-fifth of an acre per subdivision lot, or pay an amount equal to the tax value of that land.
What would it mean here? Last year 2,408 subdivision lots were approved in Charlotte-Mecklenburg. Using Wake's formula, that would have meant 68.8 acres given to the county for parks, trails or other amenities.
I did a rough estimate of how that would translate into dollars, using Wake's formula. Figuring $35,000 per acre -- and recognize that what developers pay for subdivision land varies widely -- the amount donated would have been $2.4 million.
Let me repeat that. The county is passing up an estimated $2.4 million a year, or 69 acres' donated land, that could help its parks. The only park sponsorship offer in hand, from Scott Clark Toyota, was $100,000.
Before the Mecklenburg County commissioners turn over our publicly owned parks to be used as gigantic commercials, they should enact this easily available option.
And the park department should take its proposed sponsorship policy to one of its many parks, spread it out on the ground, and invite a flock of Canada geese over to give it the reception it deserves.
Mary Newsom