I am concerned that there isn’t enough paved parking at Clear Creek Park.  On busy days, the traffic in the park gets backed up and on rainy days the grass overflow parking driveways get very muddy and almost impassable.  Can you give me some facts regarding this situation and what can be done to resolve it?

We can certainly understand your concern and we feel your pain regarding issues that exist for the limited paved parking, the lack of movement for traffic flow during peak game times and the condition of the overflow parking lots at Clear Creek Park.  We are fully aware of the situation, have witnessed the problems first hand and wish we could tell you there are easy, immediate solutions.  But unfortunately, the solutions involve large sums of funding that is not currently available in the Park District’s operating budget.  We have asked the soccer organization’s schedulers to spread out the games differently to help with traffic flow.  They have indicated an interest in utilizing varied scheduling to help with the problem.

The parking issues at Clear Creek have been discussed in great detail with the Soccer Organizations throughout the past 10 years. When the 1992 ATPD operating levy passed, Clear Creek Park was only 35 acres with only 11 fields planned, therefore that levy only included capital funds and maintenance for 11 fields.  In April of 1993, an additional 34 acres was purchased for Clear Creek Park and with input from the soccer organizations, 18 irrigated fields were developed; also an additional 5 fields were developed in the north (back) 32 acres which was then owned by Anderson Township, not the Park District.  The North 32 acres are now in Park District ownership so Clear Creek Park is now a total of 101 acres. 

We know all of this is a lot of information but we think sometimes it helps to know the history.  Our planning is not as bad as it may appear on the surface.  The soccer organizations decided it was more important to have more fields with less than adequate paved parking/roadways and utilize grass parking with the funds we had available.  We knew that having more fields and less paved parking/roadways was apt to make for future traffic problems but the soccer organization’s urgent plea for the addition fields directed us to follow their wishes. 

Millions have been spent on the development of soccer fields, and over $500,000 per year is spent on athletic field maintenance for all ATPD fields. Field user fees cover only a portion of the annual maintenance expenses.  For more detailed information on fees, please see a file called "Funding the Fun" which can be found at the top of this page. 

The cost of paving all of the overflow areas at Clear Creek Park has been estimated at over 1 million dollars.  In our long-range plans we have determined that the best idea for the overflow lots is to pave the drive lanes and provide enough pavement for 2 wheels to remain on the pavement. This will reduce the cost by about 1/3.  However, there is no funding for pavement at Clear Creek Park in the ATPD's current funds. The levy that was passed in 2000 was a replacement levy for the Park District’s operating funds.  Unlike school levies, park levies expire.  There are very few capital improvement funds available from our operating levy.  The capital funds we do have, are committed for Beech Acres Park Development and Johnson Park Development.  The public ranked these projects with the types of facilities that are planned, to be the highest priority.  This information was obtained through surveys, public focus groups and public forums.  Many citizens feel we have spent a disproportionately high amount of capital and maintenance funds on athletic fields.  They feel our limited capital improvement funds should be spent on other areas of recreation.  We struggle with stretching our limited resources as far as they can go.

In 1998 we researched the possibility of opening up another drive closer to the golf shop. Brandstetter-Carroll developed several plans, which were submitted to ODOT (Ohio Department of Transportation). The State of Ohio must approve any roadway entering onto a state route. They advised us that we would be required to construct another turn lane and an acceleration lane on SR32. Left turns into Clear Creek Park and left turns out of Clear Creek Park would be prohibited. The cost for this project was estimated at around $150,000.00.  This would be for the work on SR32 only.  An estimated $50,000.00, in addition to this, would be needed to pave a drive to the existing lot. The plan was cost prohibitive for our current funding. 

The leaders of the soccer organizations are aware that they will have to engage in fund raising if they want these roadway and paving projects to take place. In other words, the users will have to pay for this or find grants or other sources of revenue to cover the expense.  So far, no organization has stepped forward to do this, even though we have offered to work with them to make it all happen in the most efficient way possible. 

For large tournaments, we require tournament officials to hire police officers, at their expense, to direct traffic at the park entrance.  We have found that the use of police officers at the entrance helps traffic flow tremendously.  Currently, the use of police officers is optional for the soccer organizations for regular league use because of the expense involved; they may fund police officers for the roadway if they chose.  Hamilton County requires that two officers be hired for this detail in the interest of safety of the officers. 

It is through citizen involvement that we are able to improve parks and recreation for Anderson residents.   We suggest voicing concerns related to scheduling and potential interest in fund raising for pavement to the leadership of the soccer organizations. 

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