Lake Reba/Camp Catalpa

By Ronica Shannon
Register News Writer

Tue, May 13 2008

— About 60 citizens concerned with the future of Richmond’s Camp Catalpa Park gathered Thursday night in the community room of Citizens Bank to rally support for the “Save Camp Catalpa” campaign that is responsible for several yard signs, buttons and T-shirts now seen around the city.
“Save Camp Catalpa” coordinator Edna Wickersham said Thursday’s meeting was a rally to get citizens interested in the issue, but emphasized that any hurtful comments would not be tolerated.
“We are bashing no one,” she said. “That will not be allowed and that’s not what this is. We made it perfectly clear that we were not there to discuss any certain person. We’re talking about a natural asset.”
Several citizens expressed their displeasure Thursday about the Richmond City Commission’s decision to lease the Camp Catalpa property and have been submitting comments on online forums, speaking out at public meetings and submitting letters to the editor to the Richmond Register.
A door-to-door campaign began Friday morning in several different neighborhoods as a part of a grassroots effort to raise awareness and gather support for the preservation of Camp Catalpa.
The commission recently approved a no-bid lease to Lakeview RV Park LLC to transform the Camp Catalpa area into a recreational vehicle park.
Michael Eaves, attorney representing Lakeview RV Park LLC, approached the planning commission this week about changing the zoning of Lake Reba Recreational Park and Camp Catalpa Park, nearly 500 acres, from R-1A (Single-Family Residential) to PSP (Public Semi-Public).
A public hearing on the zone-change request will be conducted at the planning commission’s business session at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday at City Hall. However, the agenda item of amending the city’s development ordinance has been postponed until the planning commission’s April 23 meeting.
The land has been designated as a bird sanctuary since the early 1970s and is home to what many refer to as the city’s only wooded walking trail.
The RV park would displace the nature reserve and a disc golf course that the city approved in May 2007.
“One man who was a Cub Scout leader said he took his Scouts out there to work on bird identification,” she said.
Notable representation was made Thursday night by Eastern Kentucky University students.
“I’m really impressed with the young people,” Wickersham said. “They were asking how they could help. One young man said that we should all show up in numbers at these city commission meetings. Someone told him that it’s not on the agenda (for Tuesday’s meeting at noon at City Hall), but he said we still need to show up in numbers.”
While there are several concerns among interested citizens, some Richmond Planning and Zoning Commission members have some concerns of their own.
Planning Commissioner Clark Pergrem voiced his worry at the planning and zoning meeting March 18.
If the planning commissioners were to approve the zone change request, then the city commissioners might think more favorably of the decision to lease the property, he said.
A positive aspect of having the land re-zoned to PSP would be elimination of the possibility of residential development, said planning commission Michael Fore.
Zoning decisions ultimately are made by the city commission, but a zone change request must first go before the planning commission for a public hearing and receive a recommendation.
A development plan for any RV park would be presented to the planning commission before construction could begin.
A federal Land and Water Conservation grant for Camp Catalpa Park in the amount of $52,711.76 was awarded to the Richmond City Commission on Feb. 28, 1978, and expired on June 30, 1981, according to the U.S. Department of the Interior National Park Service Land and Water Conservation Fund.
This information can be found at waso-lwcf.ncrc.nps.gov/public/index.cfm.
The area was transformed into a nature preserve during those years.
There is no record listed by this source to indicate that the City of Richmond received additional grants for Camp Catalpa Park after 1981.
According to the 2007 GOLD (Governor’s Office for Local Development) Funding Guide, “The Land and Water Conservation Fund may be used to acquire land for recreational development, construct new outdoor recreational facilities or the renovation of existing facilities.”

Ronica Shannon can be reached at rshannon@richmondregister.com or 623-1669, Ext. 234.