belton — The Belton City Council unanimously approved the purchase of part of the former Leon Valley Golf Course as an expansion on Heritage Park in a special council meeting Tuesday.
The proposal was to purchase 84.25 acres of property adjacent and north of the current park at a cost of $2,105,250. Heritage Park is the busiest park in the City of Belton parks system, primarily due to youth baseball and soccer league use, the city said.
"This is an opportunity to address current needs and then plan for the future," city spokesman Paul Romer said.
Belton’s purchase of the additional parkland is in line with the Belton Parks and Recreation Strategic Master Plan which was adopted in 2016.
The agreement also called for Belton to receive 60 percent of the Leon River water rights of the former golf course tract.
"It's a great thing to be able to expand it now," councilmember-elect Wayne Carpenter, who was on the council in the 1980's when the city established the park, said. "The city's grown so much since the early 80's and so has the use of the park and now the size of the park."
Belton plans to close on the tract by June 1 and the planning process could begin as early as this fall.