Map courtesy of Shelby County
The Forever Wild Land Trust is planning to buy 907 acres from EBSCO to expand Double Oak Park in Shelby County, Alabama. The 907 acres is divided into two tracts outlined in red here.
The Shelby County Commission on Monday, July 13, is scheduled to consider whether to pay $1.6 million to help the Forever Wild Land Trust purchase 907 acres next to Double Oak Park, doubling the size of the park.
The total purchase price of the land is $6.42 million, with the Forever Wild Land Trust picking up $4.8 million of the cost, county records show. The seller is Ebsco Industries and Ebsco Development Co.
Double Oak Park covers about 900 acres between Shelby County 41 and Shelby County 43 — about 1.8 miles off U.S. 280, and this new addition to the park would be just northeast of the existing park, next to Shoal Creek.
The bulk of Double Oak Park was purchased by Shelby County in 2021, and the county developed hiking and biking trails throughout the property and held a ribbon cutting to celebrate the opening of the park in late 2022.
The County Commission also on Monday will consider whether to pay $740,000 to cover half the local match of a project to complete 1.9 miles of 10-foot-wide trails in the vicinity of Buck Creek in Helena. The city of Helena is providing the other half of the local match, and 80% of the funds for the $7.4 million project are coming from the Federal Highway Administration’s congestion mitigation and air quality grant program, county records show.
See the complete agenda for Monday’s meeting of the Shelby County Commission here. The meeting is scheduled for 8:30 a.m. at the Shelby County Administration Building at 200 West College St. in Columbiana.
Editor's note: This story was updated at 1:56 p.m. on July 13 to correct the total price of the land being bought by the Forever Wild Land Trust and the land trust's portion of that cost. An earlier version of this story contained incorrect numbers due to some confusing language in a County Commission resolution.
