NEWS: Fun Land of Fredericksburg adding 130 ft drop tower

[jedimaster1227]

Fun Land of Fredericksburg has received city council approval to move ahead with their plan to add a 130 foot tall drop tower to the park!

https://fredericksburg.com/news/local/fredericksburg-city-council-paves-way-for-new-ride-at-fun-land/article_60cae349-92eb-5eab-98e9-f7fb440f7c8c.html

Fun Land in Central Park is set to reach new heights.

Fredericksburg City Council voted 5–2 Tuesday night to allow heights of outdoor recreation structures up to 135 feet by special-use permit in the Planned Development—Commercial Zoning District.

That paves the way for the amusement park to begin constructing the 130-foot drop tower ride that is in the preliminary stages.

Mayor Mary Katherine Greenlaw and Councilman Jason Graham voted against Councilman Billy Withers’ motion because both agreed with the Planning Commission’s recommendation of 155 feet.

They believe that leeway would’ve prevented the need for future businesses to require Unified Development Ordinance amendments.

Greenlaw said Fun Land put the city “on the map” when it opened Virginia’s first multilevel go-kart track in 2019.

The Planning Commission discussed the possibility of a facility such as Top Golf coming to Fredericksburg and that would require a clearance of approximately 150 feet.

Graham said Central Park is the ideal location for recreational businesses with tall structures although the Top Golf discussion was purely speculative.

“I think this is absolutely the place to allow these types of heights,” Graham said. “These experiential types of companies like Fun Land and Top Golf, I think are going to be the future of commercial property in the city as you see traditional retail start to phase out over time.”

Councilman Matt Kelly expressed concern that expanding the limit to 155 feet would violate a 2005 agreement that no structures in Celebrate Virginia South would obstruct views from the Rappahannock River.

Kelly said that while the Fun Land ride doesn’t conflict with the agreement, expanding to 155 feet could open the door for future issues. City Attorney Kathleen Dooley said the agreement is enforceable if city officials wanted to decline future special use permit applications pertaining to height.

“We’re looking at redeveloping sooner or later all of Central Park,” Withers said. “I would hate to say we can have all this height. How is that going to affect the future redevelopment of the rest of Central Park? Are we saying we want to make it all amusement property or do we want to have a good mixed use of property?”

[CenturyFlyer]

Awesome! It looks like one of those seatbelt-only drop towers. I look forward to riding it. I think it could open in 2023 if all goes well.

[BRTeller]

I'm so glad I'll have one of these contraptions closer, we spent an entire night re riding the one in Branson at Bigfoot Park. These things are insanely fun, terrifying and great all around rides. Surprisingly the drop tower is way more scary once you're on it versus the slingshot. I'm assuming this version will have both since the concept art shows the slingshot attached to the backside of the tower which is identical to Bigfoot Parks, it is also a seatbelt only model and is quite terrifyingly awesome.

[bert425]

On 8/13/2021 at 8:19 AM, jedimaster1227 said:

Mayor Mary Katherine Greenlaw

I'm sorry. . but all I can think of now is. . ..

[SharkTums]

Yeah, these seatbelt only drop towers are TERRIFYING!!!