Bryan Park Buffer
After five years of fighting a proposed development of 34 pre-fab townhouses adjacent to Bryan Park and only 1000 feet from the Park’s Nature Education Center, Friends of Bryan Park (The Pearl Fishers LLC) bought the wooded 6.5-acre property with the intention of placing a conservation easement on it.
Friends of Bryan Park Board members John and Bucci Zeugner worked with CRLC and the Henricopolis Soil and Water Conservation District to record a conservation easement protecting the 6.5 acres and together are working to acquire the adjacent 6.5 acre parcel, which includes a small wetland. Their objective is to create a 400 ft wide, 2000 ft long wooded buffer that can never be developed, thus permanently protecting the western part of Bryan Park from habitat loss, and disruption of its delicate hydrology and plant communities.
Friends of Bryan Park is discussing with the City of Richmond the feasibility of incorporating the additional 13 acres into the 260-acre park. Bryan Park, once a farm dating to the early 1800s, was donated to the city in 1909 by Belle Stewart Bryan and sons in memory of publisher Joseph Bryan. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
“Preventing disruptive development adjacent to our beloved City Park was of critical importance to us! Adding 13 more acres to a City park, surrounded on three sides by Interstates would be the icing on the cake!”
