McCoy Park

McCoy Park

McCoy Park is a 31-acre Southwest Columbus park behind the Franklinton floodwall, leased in 2026 for the city's new NWSL team's training facility.

At a glance

Fact	Value
Type	City of Columbus community park
Address	600 Stimmel Rd, Columbus, OH 43223
Location	South of Greenlawn Ave, east of Harmon Ave, west of I-71
Area	31.09 acres (city park GIS)
Acquired	1946, as part of Southview Park
Named McCoy Park	1957, when I-71 split Southview Park
FEMA flood zone	Zone X, reduced flood risk due to levee (all 31.09 acres)
Protected by	West Columbus Local Protection Project (Franklinton floodwall)
Ground vs. 100-year flood	About 700-704 ft vs. 711-714 ft (NAVD88)
NWSL agreement	Ord. 1112-2026, passed April 20, 2026, 5-3-1
Public money	$25M city + $25M Franklin County
Rezoning	Z26-022 / Ord. 2452-2026, 21.3 acres to CPD, passed Sept. 14, 2026, 8-0
Planned facility	45,000 sq ft building, practice and academy fields, 180+ parking spaces
Groundbreaking	Planned for October 2026

The land before the park

The ground under McCoy Park is Scioto River bottomland. The U.S. Geological Survey's West Columbus 15-minute topographic maps of 1923 and 1925 show it as open, unbuilt land in a grid of section-line roads, with the river channel and its old meander scars to the east and north.

The City of Columbus acquired the land in 1946 as part of a larger Southview Park; the park deed, for 78.296 acres, is recorded in Deed Book 1305, page 508. The USGS Southwest Columbus 7.5-minute map of 1955 labels "Southview Park" south of Greenlawn Avenue, between State Route 104 and the river, with trailer parks along its western edge.

In 1957, according to Columbus Recreation and Parks, construction of Interstate 71 divided Southview Park. The ball fields left on the west side of the highway were named McCoy Park; the east side was renamed Berliner Park in 1983, after Columbus Dispatch sportswriter Lou Berliner. The 1965 editions of the Southwest Columbus map show I-71 and its interchange cutting through the old park, with large water-filled pits, likely gravel workings, about 0.5 to 1 kilometer (roughly a third to two-thirds of a mile) southwest. The public record consulted for this page does not say who McCoy was.

Ohio EPA's landfill lists show no landfill on the park; the nearest, a construction-and-demolition debris landfill, is about half a mile away. In 2007 City Council leased one baseball diamond and the concession building at McCoy Park to the Central Ohio Sharks Baseball (Ord. 1426-2007).

The park's current 31.09 acres are two pieces. About 20.7 acres are the historic park ground, now three auditor parcels. The other 10.35 acres were bought by the city on December 19, 2024: 555 Greenlawn Ave (8.13 acres, a vacant manufactured-home park), 627 Greenlawn Ave (1.42 acres) and a parking lot at 1040 Harmon Ave (0.80 acres). Columbus Recreation and Parks describes the youth soccer program it runs there, Columbus Unified Futbol Club, as mainly using McCoy Park for its leagues, with games on Saturdays.

The flood question

FEMA's National Flood Hazard Layer places the entire 31.09-acre park, and every parcel in the 2026 rezoning, in Zone X, "area with reduced flood risk due to levee." That zone lies outside the Special Flood Hazard Area, the regulatory 100-year floodplain, so federal flood-insurance purchase requirements and floodplain building rules do not apply. The governing flood maps are FIRM panels 39049C0309K and 39049C0317K, effective June 17, 2008.

The levee is the West Columbus Local Protection Project, often called the Franklinton floodwall. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' National Levee Database lists it as owned, maintained and operated by the City of Columbus, built with the Corps' Huntington District, accredited by FEMA, and designed to overtop only in a flood with a 0.2% annual chance (a 500-year flood). It protects about 4.55 square miles from the Scioto River and Dry Run. A 14.3-foot concrete floodwall runs about 16 feet from the park's northeast corner; FEMA's high-risk Zone AE begins on the river side of that wall.

The ground is low. USGS elevation points inside the park read about 700 to 704 feet, while FEMA's base flood elevations on the Scioto beside it are 711 to 714 feet, both on the same vertical datum. The park therefore sits roughly 7 to 14 feet below the 100-year flood level and is rated dry because of the wall. The wall is used: on August 20, 2026, the city activated the Franklinton floodwall and closed floodgates along Greenlawn and Harmon avenues, the two streets that border the site, WOSU reported.

A separate Franklin County Auditor parcel may explain the belief that the park is in a flood zone. Parcel 010-095231, still addressed "600 Stimmel Rd," covers 147 acres of city park land on the river side of the floodwall, and about 91% of it is Zone AE. That parcel no longer overlaps McCoy Park, whose ground has been split into separate parcels, but anyone looking up the park's street address on a parcel flood map sees a floodplain parcel. The rezoning text sets no floodplain, fill or levee conditions and states that the site has no floodplain requiring special protection, consistent with the FEMA map.

The inclusive park that was planned first

Before the soccer deal, the city was designing a different future for McCoy Park. Ordinance 1418-2023, passed June 26, 2023, awarded Kimley-Horn and Associates a $413,402.82 design contract for the "Gender Road Park and McCoy Park Improvements Project," paid from the Recreation and Parks voted bond fund. For McCoy, described as "nearly 20 acres" along Harmon Avenue, the brief called for an inclusive layout with therapeutic-recreation space for outdoor sports, athletic fields, pickleball courts, a splash pad, family amenities and parking. Ordinance 1031-2024, passed June 3, 2024, added $1.2 million for final design and construction documents, aimed at the 2025 building season.

The city later put the cost of building the McCoy plan at $20 million, serving 16,566 residents within a two-mile drive. NBC4 Investigates reported that the city paid $939,393.42 for the phase-one plans and that schematic design was finished in November 2025, about a month after preliminary talks with Haslam Sports Group began. ABC6's timeline of the deal reports that city leaders met with Jimmy Haslam about an NWSL team in June 2025 and that the parks director halted the McCoy renovation in early 2026 to hold the site for the team.

In May 2026 Ordinance 1407-2026 redirected the $449,204.60 left on the design contract to "alternative sites" in Southwest Columbus, noting McCoy was likely to be leased in its entirety.

The NWSL deal

Ordinance 1112-2026 is a development agreement among the City of Columbus, Franklin County, the Confluence Community Authority and the team company. Introduced April 8, 2026, it was amended and passed on April 20 by a 5-3-1 vote. Council President Shannon Hardin and members Nicholas Bankston, Emmanuel Remy, Tiara Ross and Christopher Wyche voted yes; Nancy Day-Achauer, Rob Dorans and Melissa Green voted no; Lourdes Barroso de Padilla abstained. The mayor signed it April 22. On April 21 the Franklin County commissioners approved the county's $25 million, 2-0-1, with Erica Crawley and John O'Grady voting yes and Kevin Boyce abstaining. The same day, the NWSL awarded Columbus its 18th team, to begin play in 2028, under Haslam Sports Group, owners of the Columbus Crew.

The agreement's main terms:

The city and county each contribute $25 million; the team company pays anything above $50 million.
The city's share is repaid by raising the admissions fee at ScottsMiracle-Gro Field from 5% to 7%. If revenue falls short after the 2032-33 season, the parties renegotiate, and new income or property taxes are excluded.
The city keeps title to the land and leases about 28 acres to the Confluence Community Authority, which subleases it to the team.
The lease must provide community use of certain areas, including the existing freestanding community building.
The team gives $12 million over 12 years to county programs and $3 million to the Columbus Recreation and Parks Foundation by the end of 2029 for replacement park amenities.
An amendment added a working group of up to 10 people to plan replacement park space, with a public report within 60 days, groundbreaking on replacement amenities by the end of 2026 and a full concept by the end of 2027.

The facility, as presented to the Southwest Area Commission, is a two-story, 45,000-square-foot building with two full and one partial heated-grass practice fields plus three academy fields designated for community use, often summarized as "5.5 fields." Groundbreaking was planned for October 2026.

Zoning and the replacement parks plan

The rezoning, case Z26-022, moved 21.3 acres at 600 Stimmel Road from R, R-3, C-1 and C-4 zoning to Commercial Planned Development with a 110-foot height district. Haslam Sports Group was the applicant; the city is the owner. The Southwest Area Commission delayed its advisory vote on June 9, 2026, then recommended approval 4-0-1 on July 14. The Development Commission recommended approval 5-0 on August 13, with staff asking for a traffic access study. City Council passed Ordinance 2452-2026 on September 14, 8-0, with Barroso de Padilla absent.

The zoning text permits sports and spectator facilities, natural and synthetic soccer fields, an indoor fieldhouse, offices, parking and youth camps. It allows light poles up to 90 feet (18 feet within 100 feet of homes), an 8-foot security fence in the setback, at least 180 parking spaces with access from Harmon Avenue, and an evergreen screen along the south line. City staff noted that the 2009 Southwest Area Plan recommends "Park and Open Space" for the McCoy parcel and found the planned development consistent with it.

On June 29, 2026, the Southwest Parks Working Group released a $35 million plan for three parks serving about 50,000 residents. At McCoy, about 7.5 acres would remain as park, with an indoor therapeutic-recreation building, an accessible playground, fields and courts, permanent restrooms and community access to the team's academy fields. Greenleaf Park (8.9 acres) would get an accessible playground and courts, and Berliner Sports Park a wheelchair-softball field or Miracle Field. The schedule calls for first-phase groundbreaking in 2026, construction in 2027-28 and the Berliner field in early 2029. Ordinance 2204-2026, passed September 14, added $941,941.53 to the design contract, brought in Greenleaf and Berliner, and raised the contract total to $2,555,344.35. No construction appropriation for the $35 million had been passed as of September 2026.

The debate over the park

The deal divided the city's elected officials, and both sides stated their case in public.

Supporters argued that the agreement brings a professional women's team to Columbus on terms that protect taxpayers. NWSL Commissioner Jessica Berman announced that "Team 18 in the NWSL will be right here in Columbus" (ABC6). Council member Emmanuel Remy said the agreement was "not about writing a blank check to billionaires" (WOSU), pointing to the ticket-fee repayment and the exclusion of new income or property taxes. Some yes votes came with reservations: Council President Shannon Hardin said he was taking "a terrible vote" to bring women's professional soccer to the city, and Tiara Ross said, "This is not how we build trust" (WOSU). Mayor Andrew Ginther acknowledged that the loss of the planned park "particularly stung" a community that has seen disinvestment, and the city points to the working group's plan, which it says would serve about three times as many residents as the original McCoy design.

Opponents argued that the deal takes a neighborhood park and a long-planned inclusive park from the Southwest Side. Council member Rob Dorans, voting no, said the council "should not have been put in this position" (WOSU). Columbus Education Association president John Coneglio called the public spending "outrageous" while the school district was cutting 445 positions (ABC6). Teachers, students and residents rallied at the park on May 1, 2026. The McCoy Park Community Response Coalition asked for mandated universal design, permanent restrooms, restoration of 20 acres of green space and guaranteed open-play hours on the fields (WOSU). A referendum petition against the deal was reported in April 2026; its outcome has not been reported.

Sources

Towns and ZIP codes

Water, health, jobs and history for the places on the shores and just downstream.

Towns

ZIP codes

43223 Columbus

Questions

Is McCoy Park in a flood zone?

No, not on FEMA's flood map. All 31.09 acres of McCoy Park are Zone X, an area of reduced flood risk because of a levee, outside the 100-year floodplain. The park is protected by the West Columbus Local Protection Project floodwall, a 14.3-foot section of which runs about 16 feet from its northeast corner. The ground, at roughly 700-704 feet, sits about 7 to 14 feet below the Scioto River's 100-year flood elevation, so it stays dry-rated only because of the wall.

What is happening to McCoy Park in Columbus?

McCoy Park is becoming the training site for Columbus's National Women's Soccer League team. City Council approved a development agreement on April 20, 2026, by a 5-3-1 vote, and rezoned 21.3 acres for the facility on September 14, 2026, by 8-0. Plans show a two-story, 45,000-square-foot building, practice and academy fields and at least 180 parking spaces, with groundbreaking planned for October 2026.

Where will the Columbus NWSL team train?

The Columbus NWSL team, awarded as the league's 18th club on April 21, 2026, will train at McCoy Park, 600 Stimmel Road on the city's Southwest Side. The city keeps ownership of the land and leases about 28 acres to the Confluence Community Authority, which subleases it to the team company. The facility plan includes heated grass practice fields and three academy fields designated for community use. Play begins in 2028.

How much public money is going to the Columbus NWSL training facility?

Fifty million dollars: $25 million from the City of Columbus and $25 million from Franklin County, with the team company paying any costs above that. The city's share is to be repaid by raising the admissions fee at ScottsMiracle-Gro Field from 5% to 7%. The county is borrowing its share through bonds repaid from non-tax revenue. The team also pledged $12 million over 12 years to county programs and $3 million toward replacement park space.

What was planned for McCoy Park before the NWSL deal?

An inclusive, therapeutic-recreation park. In 2023 and 2024 Columbus Council approved $1.6 million in design work by Kimley-Horn for McCoy and Gender Road parks, covering adaptive sports fields, pickleball, a splash pad and family amenities. The city put the cost to build the McCoy plan at $20 million. NBC4 reported the city had paid $939,393.42 for phase-one plans before the site was held for the soccer team in early 2026.

What is the $35 million Southwest Columbus parks plan?

It is a replacement plan released June 29, 2026, by a city working group created under the NWSL agreement. It spreads park improvements across three sites: about 7.5 acres left as park at McCoy, Greenleaf Park (8.9 acres) and an adaptive field at Berliner Sports Park, serving about 50,000 residents. As of September 2026 only design money, $941,941.53, had been legislated, plus the team's $3 million pledge.

More deep dives

See them all