The For Sale Sign at Huckleberry Park Was Part of the Plan Before the Park Opened

A for-sale sign now stands on the grass at the front of Christiansburg Huckleberry Park, close to where Peppers Ferry Road meets the park's edge. Cardinal News photographed it for its Oct. 12 story. The story said the town plans to sell part of the park "for an undisclosed commercial development."

If your weekends include the splash pad, the dog parks or the walk to the Huckleberry Trail, that sign probably caught your eye. Some context helps here. Plans to sell this strip of land were on paper years before the park had a name. Town Council's public hearing on Tuesday, Oct. 27 will be the first time residents see that piece of the plan in public.

What Council Will Hear on Oct. 27

The Oct. 27 hearing covers two parcels. Together they total 5.335 acres at the intersection of Peppers Ferry Road NW and Booker T. Washington Parkway NW, according to the Oct. 6, 2026 Town Council agenda that scheduled it. Council minutes from December 2025 give the size of each lot.

The agenda doesn't name a buyer, a price or what would be built. Town Public Information Officer Christiana Bolt explained why to Cardinal News: "That is still sort of in negotiation, and the conversation right now is between the potential buyer and our legal team." She added that more information is expected before the hearing.

Bolt also told Cardinal News the land "has been on the market for quite some time, definitely since the park has opened." The plan goes back well before that.

The Sale Was Written In Before the Park Had a Name

You can trace the frontage lots through the park's whole planning history:

1. 2013. The town bought the 62-acre Truman-Wilson Farm near Peppers Ferry Road and set it aside for recreation. The town also set a goal of building a road between Peppers Ferry Road and Cambria Street.
2. October 2018. The town asked private companies for park proposals. Among the planning items listed for future development were "multiple lots for private development" and a trailhead connection to the Huckleberry Trail.
3. July 2019. Council voted 6-0 for a design agreement with Faulconer Construction Company under Virginia's public-private partnership law, the same approach the town used to build the Christiansburg Aquatic Center. In the same report, the News Messenger wrote that "three retail parcels will be sold with the town hoping to recoup some of the costs for the facility."
4. October 2022. Council named the park's entrance road Huckleberry Park Drive.
5. September 2023. The park opened.
6. December 2025. Council met in closed session about selling all three frontage lots and about one acre of the 55.347-acre main park parcel.

The parcels in the table above are those "three retail parcels." The playground and fields aren't up for sale. The land at the Peppers Ferry end was set aside as commercial frontage from the beginning, so the park would sit behind it and its sale would help pay for what got built.

The Park That Got Built Was Bigger Than the Plan That Got Approved

That background matters because of the price. In 2019 the full concept carried a $36 million price tag. Council chose a smaller version, called Option 1, that brought the estimate down to $16 million. To get there it dropped a splash park, an amphitheater and a fast-pitch softball field, with the option of bringing them back in a later phase.

The splash pad came back anyway. When WSLS covered the opening in September 2023, it listed two dog parks, sports fields, a splash pad and an accessible jungle gym. WSLS called it a $21 million park. In its 2026 story, Cardinal News put the cost at about $18 million. The reported figures don't match, but every one of them is above the $16 million that Option 1 was approved at in 2019.

The park has been busy. In a May 2024 WSLS report, Parks and Recreation Director Brad Epperley said the park had more than 108,000 visits by March of its first year. The first-year goal was 220,000. The town's welcome guide, updated in September 2025, lists the all-inclusive playground, splash pad, pet-friendly play areas, event spaces and multipurpose fields at 300 Huckleberry Park Dr. NW, with the dog park, splash pad and playground open dawn to dusk.

So the park ended up with more in it than the approved plan called for, and the frontage lots are the piece of the original financing that hasn't happened yet. The Oct. 27 hearing is the town's first public step toward completing that sale.

What Stays, and What Is Still Unknown

Several things are on public record. The two lots on the agenda make up 5.335 acres. Cardinal News described the park as 50 to 60 acres and reported that the parcels sit in "the front part of the park nearest to Peppers Ferry." The park itself sits on the main 55.347-acre parcel, which isn't on the Oct. 27 agenda.

As of mid-October, several things aren't on the public record:

• The buyer and the use. The town hasn't named either, and Bolt said negotiations were continuing.
• The price. The hearing notice on the agenda doesn't include one.
• New Lot 1. The town hasn't said publicly what will happen to the 2.107-acre third parcel. It was included in the December 2025 closed-session discussion but isn't part of the Oct. 27 hearing.
• The roughly one acre of the main park parcel that was part of that same December discussion. Nothing public says what the town has in mind for it.

Park improvements are a separate question. At the Jan. 13, 2026 council meeting, a council member asked about proposed pickleball courts at Huckleberry Park. Staff said money was available for the project but weren't sure where it stood.

Tuesday at 7

The public hearing is at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 27, at the town municipal building. Council meetings are held at Christiansburg Town Hall, 100 East Main Street. The Oct. 6 meeting was held in person and also streamed on the town's YouTube page. Bolt said more details would be released before the hearing, so the town's website is the place to check this week for the buyer's name or the planned use.

Whatever comes out of the hearing, the land in question has been planned for sale since before the park opened. What residents will see on Oct. 27 is who wants to build there and what they plan to put up.

Questions about new commercial plans along Peppers Ferry Road often come up when people are deciding where to live in Christiansburg, and we follow them closely. If you'd like to talk through what a project near Huckleberry Park could mean for your own plans, Wendy Swanson and the Swanson Team are happy to sit down with you. No pressure, just local context. Contact Us.