By Knox White

Having long discussed the idea during more than a decade of study and planning, Greenville is taking the first steps in turning the vision of a 60-acre west-side park into reality — to transform and in some ways restore a largely unseen and often forgotten part of our community’s history. The park will be named Unity Park.

We are staking out this ground for generations to come as a park for everyone. It’s designed to accomplish four main goals: manage growth by balancing it with green space, knit together neighborhoods, address issues of affordable housing, and create a destination to attract visitors from across the region and beyond.

Unity Park is a recognition that Greenville’s strength derives from its diversity of cultures and backgrounds that have combined to build one of the nation’s most enviable communities. Unity Park is a forward-looking acknowledgment that our achievements ahead will be defined and measured by our ability to unite as one community behind a shared vision, having learned the lessons of our history.

The $40 million park will be funded through a public-private partnership. The city of Greenville has pledged $20 million, largely from hospitality tax funding, and has set a goal to raise another $20 million in private funding. The Community Foundation of Greenville has already contributed $100,000, and Verizon has contributed $25,000.

The city has released the latest design renderings from MKSK Landscape Architecture of Columbus, Ohio, that showcase some of the park’s key features, including a signature 120-foot observation tower, a gathering hall that can host outdoor concerts, a pedestrian bridge, a playground, a water “sprayground,” athletic fields, and green space.

Most significantly, the park includes restoration of the wetlands and a section of the Reedy River. The park is the natural next step for reclaiming the Reedy through an interconnected series of parks beginning with Cleveland Park, extending through Falls Park downtown, and crossing Academy Street into West Greenville with Unity Park.

A park on this site was first envisioned in a 1907 planning document entitled “Beautifying and Improving Greenville, South Carolina” by the noted Boston landscape architects Kelsey & Gould. The May 2002 Reedy River Master Plan compiled by Clemson University for the city and county also called for a park on this land, as well as a hiking path that would become the Swamp Rabbit Trail.

Our Greenville wins awards. Urban planners visit from other cities to see for themselves how we transformed a typical mill town into a force to be reckoned with. We did so by staying true to a long-range progressive vision, by maintaining an enduring respect for conservation and sustainability, and by recognizing our shared history and heritage.

Unity Park represents each of these in ways that pay homage to the historic legacy of three of downtown’s proudest neighborhoods — Southernside, West Greenville, and Hampton-Pinckney — and the people who brought us to where we are today.

Toward that end, areas of the park will be named Mayberry Field and Meadowbrook Green in honor of the rich history of Mayberry and Meadowbrook parks. Unity Park will afford many more opportunities to recognize Greenville’s roots and tell our story.

To be constructed in phases over time, the park will stretch from the A.J. Whittenberg Elementary School of Engineering on the southeastern corner to the railroad trestle on the northwest. When completed, the park will be about twice the size of Falls Park and about half the size of Cleveland Park.

Knox White is the mayor of the City of Greenville.