Commission to approve park purchase

It’s been five years since Indian Beach/Sapphire Shores residents began a serious push to get a park on an 8-acre site in their neighborhood.

At the time, a few residents put together a $5.5 million offer to purchase the land, but the owners, Coastal Island Group, refused to sell because they wanted to build the property into the Casa Museo development.

Because of the lack of sales, however, the developers have decided to sell now for considerably less.

County commissioners are expected tomorrow to approve the county’s purchase of 4200 Bay Shore Road, which will then be turned into a county park.

The sale price is $3.3 million.

Indian Beach/Sapphire Shores has two small “pocket” parks that are about one-quarter acre in size but nothing the size of the Bay Shore Road property.

“We are the biggest neighborhood in the city, with about 1,200 homes, and we don’t have where kids can play,” said Matthew Reynolds, an Indian Beach/Sapphire Shores resident who has taken the lead in pursuing the park purchase.

Contact Robin Roy at [email protected].