County commissioner presents hypothetical plans for fairgrounds

Boone County Commissioner Fred Parry said Monday he is making good on a campaign promise to restore the Boone County Fairgrounds for future, year-round use.

Parry presented a tentative plan to the Convention and Visitors Bureau on Monday afternoon at its monthly meeting. He said he had not run the plan by Commissioners Janet Thompson or Dan Atwill yet. He said he wanted to just start a conversation about fairground reconfiguration by presenting it to a number of different groups and getting feedback before he presented a solid plan to the commissioners.

“I feel like we have a tremendous asset we’re not taking advantage of,” said Parry during his presentation.

Currently, Veteran’s United and UPS are leasing parts of the property for a total of three years and Parry said that was ideal because it could take that long to get a form of his plan in place.

In January 2015, Boone County shut down the Central Missouri Events Center after county voters rejected an 8-cent sales tax.

Parry’s plan revolves around 450 acres that include the fairgrounds but also other acreage surrounding the area. One part of the plan includes 182 acres north of the grounds owned by the Laurie family. There is also a new, 50-acre park currently under construction near Alpha Hart Lewis Elementary School that could be incorporated into the plan.

A large part of the tentative reconfiguration would revolve around the creation of new playing fields, such as baseball and soccer fields. Parks and Recreation director Mike Griggs recommended adding a new baseball field to the plan.

“We don’t have that one big premier field that you could have 2,500 or 3,000 spectators at,” said Griggs. “We need that, that’s a component we don’t have.”

Griggs said they used to use Simmons Field on MU’s campus but that become roughly unavailable when the university became a part of the SEC.

“Columbia lost that opportunity to bid on those kinds of state tournaments,” said Griggs.

Griggs said Parks and Rec would also like to extend the trail system through the fairgrounds.

“Imagine, then anyone who wanted to go to the fair could ride their bike, walk, jog without having to worry about crossing Highway 63 or driving their car,” he said.

Parry said the Show-Me State games were running out of space and to keep the tournament in Columbia, it would be in the city and county’s long-term best interest to have facilities there for sports.

The Boone County Fair board president Jeff Cook said on the phone Tuesday that to make the fairgrounds work they’re going to have to involve sports and create an activity space.

Hampton Inn and Suites General Manager Susan Bell is a member of the Convention and Visitors Bureau and said she was thrilled with Parry’s presentation.

“He had lots of ideas that would bring business to Columbia and put heads in beds in hotels,” said Bell.

Parry said he tried to keep everything close together instead of spread out, which had been an issue for the fair board previously.

He recommended relocating livestock buildings to consolidate, as well as converting the current coliseum to a multipurpose arena that includes livestock buildings.

“The fairgrounds is our security for our future,” said Bell. “Having our kids showing their pigs, their cows, their sheep and things like that, that’s an asset to our county and so every resident of Boone County has a little piece of that responsibility of making sure we keep it secure and keep it thriving.”

Griggs said the agriculture component needs to be looked at and there was some discussion of having equestrian trails.

Currently, Parry said, the coliseum building has deferred maintenance and it could cost less to renovate into a multipurpose arena than into a meeting space.

Holiday Inn Executive Center sales director Teri Weis asked Parry if there would be enough parking for so many new, consolidated buildings.

Parry indicated there would be parking around the potential ballpark and if the Laurie family was willing to use its land, there could be parking there, too.

Parry said he has not done a feasibility study, as much of this is purely conjecture and tentative, but he suggested there could be some ways to pay for the project, including an 8-cent sales tax that would sunset in three years and generate $9 million, private donations, taxing districts or even using the revenue generated by the fairground events.

In a perfect world, the fairgrounds would be self-sustaining, Parry said. But more likely they won’t be and will need a constant revenue source.

Parry said he also plans to work with the city of Columbia on the plan and suggested that the relationship between the county and city has softened, especially after the TIF lawsuit was resolved.

Bell said it’s important to focus on things that will bring people to the community but also the community needs to be involved in the process.

“I think first the community has to get involved by attending meetings where the plans are looked at,” she said. “People have a tendency not to attend the meeting but then they’re surprised about the outcome or the ideas that are brought forward.”

Other Convention and Visitors Bureau members mentioned adding the Missouri Department of Transportation to the loop on the plans for road construction, and others talked about money that would need to be used to fix infrastructure.