Revamped nature museum likely to stay in Myers Park, despite residents’ complaints

The Discovery Place Nature museum likely isn’t going anywhere.

That was the message museum and Mecklenburg County officials told the museum’s Myers Park neighbors at a tense community meeting Tuesday night.

The meeting covered controversial plans to demolish the museum and build a larger one at its current site, despite some neighbors concerns over parking and safety. The project would cost at least $32 million.

The county owns the building and the land where the museum is, and the county and the museum intend to share the cost of the project.

Last month, county leaders halted plans to replace the 13,000-square-foot building with a new one double its size after neighbors loudly complained they’d been left out of the planning process and said they worried the new facility would clog their residential streets and create safety and environmental concerns.

Since then, county and museum leaders said they’ve been researching options for repositioning the building, entrances and parking, as well as exploring a potential move to another county park.

A move, however, seems unlikely.

Bert Lynn, capital planning division director for Mecklenburg County, told museum neighbors on Tuesday that while they haven’t completely eliminated the idea of moving Discovery Place Nature to another location, planners are trying to make its current location work.

Some community members, including County Commissioner Susan Harden, had discussed the idea of moving the museum to Park Road Park, which would offer more parking, more space and less impact on residential streets.

But Discovery Place President Catherine Wilson Horne said Tuesday that Park Road Park doesn’t have enough “diversity in wildlife” to gel with the museum’s goal of giving customers an experience where they can be “immersed in nature.”

She said she wanted a redesigned nature museum to have a more prominent entrance from Freedom Park so more park-goers would wander in for a visit. (Nature Museum admission is $8 or included with a $150 Discovery Place membership.)

“Park Road Park is a lovely park, ... but it does not offer the deep natural setting that is needed,” Horne said.

Neighbors’ concerns

Horne, along with Lynn and Mecklenburg County Manager Dena Diorio, asked neighbors in attendance for their input on design ideas with options for bus and visitor parking, entrances and turnabouts.

Some neighbors said they were grateful to be asked for input and want the museum to stay, but others said they were angry that county leaders didn’t work hard enough to find the museum another park to call home.

“I don’t think a zoo in the middle of this neighborhood is a smart thing to do,” said Jenny Lou Wright, who lives across the street from the museum.

“This kind of structure does not belong in the middle of anybody’s neighborhood,” Wright said, to applause. “Take it somewhere where you have room to grow.”

Otters and a canopy walkway

Even critics of the museum’s plan to rebuild in Myers Park agree that its current building is outdated.

It was built in 1951, and while it has charming vintage characteristics and offers young visitors the chance to gaze at an owl or stroll through a butterfly garden, it doesn’t have the types of state-of-the-art exhibits some museums have.

Plans for a new museum, which have been underway since 2015, include features like an otter habitat and an outdoor raised tree canopy walkway. Museum officials predict annual attendance would double with a larger museum, from 80,000 to 160,000 visitors.

The visitor space of the new museum would grow by about 1,800 square feet, to about 11,800 square feet. Another 14,100 square feet would be “back of house” space, to handle staff offices and animal care areas.

The museum’s parking lot would need to grow, too. Currently, it has 68 spaces but would need to have at least 87 with the expansion, Lynn said.

In doing so, some neighbors will see their now woodsy view of Freedom Park replete with owls, foxes and deer, turned into a parking lot.

Next steps

One of the more interesting exchanges of the night came between Discovery Place board member Rich Campbell and museum neighbors. Campbell said he previously lived in a home close by Discovery Place Nature.

“What’s not being said is this: This has been planned for four years. There has been so much work that’s been done to try to figure out who we can do this on this unique site ... and to raise money to do it to minimize impact on the neighborhood,” Campbell said.

“We are orienting the entire thing to the park. The whole (idea) is to drive people from the park in, not to drive people from” neighborhood streets, he said. “It is going to be great for our city.”

Diorio said the county and museum staff will review residents’ recommendations and comments, and “make the best decision that we think is in the best interest of the entire county.” She said she wants to include a panel of neighbors in the process.

“This is a unique space that aligns with the park. You can’t replicate this anyplace else in the county,” Diorio said after the meeting. “If we look at another space, what are we giving up? It’s not the same if you just put it in the middle of an open space.”

As neighbors scattered to review the plans, Horne acknowledged the discontent in the room.

“That’s part of the civic process. It’s also hard to make everyone happy, and to do what’s really right and most important for our community,” she said.

This story was originally published January 22, 2020 at 7:15 AM.