Community members petition for public park on old Lamberts Point Golf Course

There’s a grassroots effort for more grass in Norfolk, led by two women inspired by the public parks movement of the 19th century.

Mary Beth Horton and Liz Paiste bonded in their garden club over their shared interest in Frederick Law Olmsted, the landscape architect behind Central Park and dozens of other public green spaces nationwide. Now, the two are circulating a petition to turn part of the old Lamberts Point Golf Course into a 15-acre public park, citing a lack of parks in Norfolk.

“Because I have three dogs and I walk the entire west side of town, I was realizing how little green space for the public we have,” Horton said.

Horton and Paiste have calculated that only a small percent of Norfolk’s land area is dedicated to public park space.

Their petition has 1,098 signatures out of their 1,500 goal, as of Monday.

The 9-hole golf course, situated to the north of the rail yard and on the Elizabeth River next to Old Dominion University, closed at the end of 2022. Hampton Roads Sanitation District bought the golf course from Norfolk for $30 million and plans to use the 40-acre property for a second water treatment plant in the area. The first one, which is next to the golf course, treats water and discharges it into the Elizabeth River. The second one, part of a project called the Sustainable Water Initiative for Tomorrow, or SWIFT, will inject treated water into a groundwater aquifer.

But there are 15 acres leftover that still belong to the city. Horton, a real estate agent, checked city records and identified a parcel of land with undulating hills, winding paths and “spectacular views of the river,” as it’s described in the petition. She thought the space would be perfect for a park.

The golf course was built atop an old landfill site, which limits types of development that can happen on the land. That makes it particularly well suited for park space, which Paiste said is in surprisingly short supply in Norfolk.

Paiste contacted the city to learn how much was public parkland. From there, she found out how much land is mowed by the city, and determined that acreage was 3% of the city’s land area.

That is slightly less that the non profit Trust for Public Land calculates for Norfolk’s park space.

Norfolk has 1,792 acres devoted to parks, or about 5.5% of the city’s land, according to the organization, which advocates for creation and preservation of park space. That’s far less than other Virginia cities for which the organization has calculated the percent of park space. Chesapeake, which includes parts of the Great Dismal Swamp National Wildlife Refuge, is 27% park space; Virginia Beach is 17%; Arlington is 11%; and Richmond is 7%, according to the non profit.

Horton and Paiste aren’t novices to outdoor advocacy.

Paiste serves as a tree commissioner on the board that advises the city on policies about the wellbeing of trees.

This is the third park Horton has championed. In 2015, the city slated an old schoolyard in North Meadow Brook for development into 48 homes. Horton was part of an organized push to keep the schoolyard as a public park, and reached a compromise with the city. The city took one acre for a new fire station, and preserved 3 ½ acres for a park. Horton raised $27,000 for fencing for a dog park. The park also has a playground and a basketball court.

“That taught me that grassroots initiatives actually work if they’re organized,” Horton said.

Horton has also worked on reestablishing bird habitat along the Elizabeth River Trail in West Ghent.

The future of the city-owned property is up for debate, and the city is seeking feedback from residents about what they want to see at Lamberts Point. Residents have the chance to chime in via a public survey or at a July 19 forum hosted at the former golf course clubhouse.

“As this is some of the last public waterfront property, there has been considerable interest” from the public about the city’s plans, according to the city’s website about Lamberts Point.

“It’d be nice to have a place you can escape that’s really just down the street,” Paiste said. “That, to me, is wonderful.”

Cianna Morales, 757-957-1304, cianna.morales@virginiamedia.com