The city of East Lansing received a Natural Resources Trust Fund Grant to help pay for the new 2.93 acres of land, said Wendy Wilmers-Longpre, assistant director of parks and recreation and arts.

“The reason this property is of value to the city is that it will expand the northern boundary of the park to Lake Lansing Road, allowing the public to access the park from the north,” Longpre said.

“Currently, you are able to access the park from the south, east and west, but not the north.”

The new land will provide pedestrians access to the park, Longpre said.

“We would hope to eventually extend the Northern Tier Trail from its ending point at Pebblebrook Lane, north through White Park and across Lake Lansing Road to connect to the branch of the trail that ends at Towar Avenue,” Longpre said.

The grant will cover about $430,000 of the cost of acquiring the new land, Longpre said.

The land owner is donating the rest of the land, she said.

“There will be no cost to the city to purchase the land,” she said.

The city is obtaining the land from the Al White Family Trust, McCaffrey said.

“The land parcels that we are purchasing are currently undeveloped and are immediately adjacent to the existing park,” he said. “We believe that the addition of these land parcels to the existing park is a logical extension of the park.”

The city hopes to close on the property in the next 30 to 45 days, McCaffrey said.

Some students think this is not a good use of the land.

“I think it’s a waste of money,” engineering senior Mike Thompson said.

“We already have so many parks and grounds already, so to add three acres … seems like a waste of money when we already have so many beautiful parks on campus already.”

Other students find the new land a good addition to the park.

“I think it’s good because it gives people something to do,” special education freshman Dana Holt said. “Instead of sitting inside, they can go outside and do something productive.”

The new land isn’t the only change the park will experience in the future, McCaffrey said.

“Eventually, we hope to add sidewalks and pathways to improve nonmotorized transportation opportunities to and around the park,” he said.

“(And) perhaps some landscaping at the Lake Lansing Road curve immediately adjacent to Towar Avenue. These improvements are not formalized at this time and it will likely be quite some time before they are completed.”

These changes are being made to benefit the many park users, McCaffrey said.

“Since a section of the Northern Tier Trail is in the park, we have a considerable number of trail users,” he said.

“We have a youth baseball field and soccer field in the park that are used by the youth in the community. The Whitehills Elementary School students use the park each day during the school year for recess and other activities, among others.”