By April Bethea
abethea@charlotteobserver.com

Mecklenburg commissioners could decide later this month whether to begin construction on the long-planned but delayed Romare Bearden Park in Third Ward.

Parks and Recreation Director Jim Garges has asked commissioners to spend $2.2 million for demolition and grading on the 5.4-acre park site. It would come from a pool of pay-as-you-go construction money that county commissioners included in this year's budget.

Garges said the county needs to start the project soon because of a looming deadline that would let one of the previous owners of the park land buy back nearly half of the property if certain construction isn't under way by early October.

Commissioners agreed last week to put off a vote on the project until April 19 to give staff time to talk with RBC Corp. about possibly extending the deadline in its deed with the county.

Without the land, Garges said last week, Bearden Park would look more like an "oversized Green" than what had been originally planned. The Green is a 1.5-acre park in the 400 block of North Tryon Street.

The $11 million Bearden Park is planned for land bordered by Church, Mint and Third streets and Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard. Its namesake is a Charlotte-born artist considered one of the foremost African-American artists of the 20th century.

The county has discussed building a new park in uptown's Third Ward since at least 2000, and had previously bought a nearby piece of property for the project. However, commissioners later agreed to lease that site to the Charlotte Knights for a planned minor league baseball stadium.

The county has spent $2 million so far on Bearden Park, including completing its design.

But further construction has been on hold ever since county leaders decided in 2009 to freeze borrowing for new construction projects. The move was part of a number of efforts to get the county's debt load under control.

County officials are now going through a process of evaluating and ranking more than $900 million in projects where bonds have been approved, but for which no money has been borrowed. Bearden Park is among the projects being considered.

Some commissioners have questioned whether the board shouldn't wait until that process is completed before considering moving ahead with the park.

Commissioner Neil Cooksey said at last week's board meeting that he isn't opposed to the park, but thinks it could set a bad precedent for the board to move a project up the list before implementing the new process for prioritizing projects.

Garges said the parks department would not come back for the rest of the money, about $8 million, needed for the project until the summer. By then, the county should have finished its projects ranking, and he said he thinks Bearden Park would score highly on the list.

The parks department is approaching private donors to help pay for the project. A $1 million gift had been pledged previously, but fell through after the recession. Garges said the department wants to raise at least 20 percent of a project's cost through private funds, which would be nearly $3 million for Bearden Park. Staff and park advocates are working to see what money could be available.

Assuming construction could start by May and all money for the project is available when needed, Bearden Park could open by September 2012. That's the same month the Democratic National Convention is in town, and uptown boosters have said its urban parks could be an attraction to convention goers.

But Garges and other commissioners say the convention isn't their reason for starting the project now. Instead, they say they want to make good on a promise to Third Ward residents and others who pushed for the park, and meet the October deadline in its property deed. Also, Garges has talked of the potential to mark the start of the park's construction during a fall event to honor the centennial anniversary of Bearden's birth.

"The convention has no influence on the decision that I'm making. I'm making it for the community," said commissioner Vilma Leake. "DNC will come and DNC will go, but my thing is they promised this to the community over ten years ago. We talk about accountability ... I support this park."

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