The 226-acre expansion of Secor Metropark in western Lucas County is expected to be completed and open to the public in the spring of 2022 after Metroparks board members on Wednesday unanimously approved a series of land acquisition deals.
Features of the expanded parkland will include three more miles of hiking trails and a return of the flood-prone site to its swampy, prairie, and tree-lined past. Once completed, the expansion will bring Secor Metropark to 836 acres, making it the third-largest park in Metroparks Toledo’s system.
“We're going to be doing a lot to bring that land back without impacting our neighbors,” Tim Schetter, the Metroparks’ natural resources director, said.
The expansion is being made possible by the recent sale of the former Spuyten Duyval and Cottonwood Creek golf courses, a $2.7 million deal Metroparks pulled off last fall without using any of its general operating funds.
Spuyten Duyval closed Oct. 31 and Cottonwood Creek closed Oct. 12. Both are in the 9500 block of Central Avenue in Sylvania Township, adjacent to Secor Metropark.
Five land transactions to complete the deal were ratified Wednesday by a single, 4-0 vote of the Metroparks Toledo Board of Park Commissioners. Commissioner Lera Doneghy was absent.
Following the death of Gary K. Shaneck, at age 73 in May, 2014, relatives kept the golf courses running for five years before Mr. Shaneck’s wife, Susan Shaneck, decided it was time to sell. Mr. Schaneck wished to have the property restored to its natural state once the family gave up ownership, and Ms. Shaneck came up with the idea of selling to the Metroparks district.
Back when the deal was announced last fall, Sarai Shaneck, the golf courses’ president and general manager, said her late father “was at heart a true outdoorsman” and that the family is “thrilled” by what Metroparks Toledo has in store for their former property.
“He loved this land and would have seen this as a fitting ending for the golf course as he truly believed in land conservation and the preservation of wild spaces,” she said.
Though the Metroparks district was pleased to have been approached by the Shaneck family, the timing was awful.
Back when negotiations began, the district’s board had just committed itself to acquiring land along the Maumee Riverfront in East Toledo it is now developing into the future Glass City Metropark, a project it has called its most ambitious ever. The timing forced district officials to “think creatively” about outside grant possibilities, Mr. Schetter said.
The district never had any aspirations of operating the golf courses. Its goal is to plant 50,000 trees and revert the site to its natural state as a forested wetland and prairie habitat native to the globally rare Oak Openings region.
It will work with the Lucas County Engineer’s Office to plug ditches and build a berm along West Central Avenue to keep water on site. It plans to expand wildlife habitat, long-distance running, and birdwatching opportunities.
How was the deal pulled off without using Metroparks district funds?
Mr. Schetter heaps praise on former Metroparks Executive Director Steve Madewell, who came up with the idea of partnering with the Western Reserve Land Conservancy — Ohio’s largest local conservancy — to seek grants.
Metroparks Toledo actually bought the land from the conservancy after entering into a purchase agreement with the Shaneck family, a three-way deal which gave the district more time to obtain the grants it needed.
Ultimately, the land conservancy helped Metroparks obtain $2.9 million from the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency’s little-known Water Resource Restoration Sponsor Program, as well as two grants from the federal government’s Great Lakes Restoration Initiative: one for $510,000 for habitat restoration and another for $200,000 for forestry work.
That left Metroparks Toledo with $900,000 for restoration, money it expects to go a long way. The organization is in talks with groups such as the Maumee Area of Concern to help complete stream restoration, Mr. Schetter said.
When the project was announced, Joe Leslie, the land conservancy’s vice president of real estate, said the work “will have a vast impact on natural habitat, water quality, and public recreation opportunities.”
Another goal is to improve 1,200 linear feet along Prairie Ditch, a stream that drains into a portion of Ten Mile Creek which the Ohio EPA lists as impaired.
First Published February 19, 2020, 7:59 p.m.
