Boyce Mayview Park: Masterplan Update
After a year of preparation and extensive contributions from the staff and residents of the Township of Upper St. Clair, the Master Plan for the 475 acre Boyce Mayview Park was completed. A consultant team, led by environmental planning and design firm Wallace Roberts & Todd and ecologists, prepared a thorough inventory and analysis of the property's existing features. The plan is the product of intensive public involvement.
The Township Board of Commissioners adopted the final plan in November 1999. The master plan demonstrates the capacity of the property to accommodate the diverse recreational and preservation interest of the Township. Two major proposed elements of the plan are: a site for an Environmental Education Center and a recreational/community center complex — Mayview Commons.
Boyce Mayview Park balances the community's needs for passive, nature-oriented activities with limited recreational activities. Eighty-six percent of the park will be passive, nature-oriented activities served by trails, overlooks and seating areas. Miles of trail thread through open meadows and forests, and gently traverse high value habitats and restoration areas.
Active uses cluster in the Mayview Commons creating a "village center" around green space comparable to a New England town common. With a long history of productive uses that include farming and coal mining, the park's varied heritage is expressed in a contemporary theme of productive, sustainable development. This heritage provides opportunities for interpreting the coexistence of nature, technology, agriculture and industry.
Recognizing the importance in the Township, Boyce Mayview Park offers more than active and passive recreation. Environmental preservation and recreation are placed in the context of a larger message of sustainable development and community. This is represented by the Environmental Education Center, community gardens and the community composting/recycling facility.
Park Planning and Design Principles
The design and planning of the Boyce Mayview Park has been a thorough and deliberate process. The findings of the site analysis and the extraordinary amount of community input led to the formulation of the nine guiding principles listed below. These principles, in turn provided direction and meaning to the overall plan for the property.
- Preserve sensitive habitats — An extraordinarily diverse range of topography, vegetation and water resources bless the park. Together, these systems form specific habitats for most of the native flora and fauna indigenous to the region.
- Improve water quality — Stretched along Chartiers Creek, the park can act as a giant filter for urban storm water runoff from adjacent development. Water quality is a major issue nationwide, and the actions taken in the park specific to Chartiers Creek will aid the ongoing efforts to improve water quality in the creek.
- Limit vehicular access to the perimeter of the site to preserve the interior—Provide access to the park, but in a way that does not trammel the very resource being preserved.
- Link Boyce and Mayview properties — The two properties are separated by a deep ravine that effectively severs the expanse of the entire 475 acres. By linking north and south, the public can better experience the total park.
- Define and enhance spatial areas — Diversity of habitat is paralleled by diversity of space on the park, ranging from hilltops to the creek valley, from flat meadows to precipitous slopes. The changing spatial experience of passing through and among these spaces makes the park seem much larger, and greatly adds to its worth.
- Limit active recreation to the north area of the site — To retain the largest reasonable area for preservation of wildlife habitat, limit intensive human activity and vehicular access as much as possible to the north of the site which is less constrained by the presence of sensitive natural resources.
- Connect major habitats, program features and key adjacent uses — A fully developed network of pedestrian and bicycle access to and within the park will enable the community to fully appreciate the park.
- Improve pedestrian access by developing trail links from the community to the key areas within the park—Getting people to the park conveniently with the least amount of disturbance to the park requires excellent connections to the planned sidewalk and bicycle paths proposed by the Township. More people reaching the park on foot and by bike means less traffic in the adjoining neighborhoods and less impact on the park.
- Green Design — The park should be designed as a model of "green design" using recycled materials, energy conservation techniques, and low maintenance landscape treatments.
A possible Environmental Education Center is one of the major proposed program elements of the park, the other being a recreational/community center complex that might be called Mayview Commons. The center would be located in the north half (Mayview parcel) of Boyce Mayview Park, about a quarter mile east of Mayview Commons. The selected site balances ease of access with an appropriate sense of "immersion" in the park's characteristically diverse landscapes. The center will be conveniently close to most of the major habitat areas of the park, but construction will not extensively impact the sensitive natural environments that provide the setting for educational interpretation.
The Boyce Mayview Park Master Plan Concept map indicates by legend an overview of both current and proposed key park sites.
