A donation of land will allow Davidson County Community College to more than double its size.
The college has also developed a master plan for how that land could be put to use.
"We're establishing a vision for the future of what the college should be," said Mary Rittling, the president of DCCC.
Officials have no timetable for developing the new property.
The land, 183 acres, was donated this week by Ed Hinkle and Talmadge Hinkle Silversides in memory of their grandfather, Henry T. Link, a furniture industry magnate who was involved in early planning of DCCC.
He died in 1983.
The land is along Business Interstate 85 across from the existing campus, between Thomasville and Lexington. The existing campus covers 97 acres, but only 40-50 acres of that is usable because of topography.
The DCCC Foundation hired civil engineers and architects to help develop ideas for the use of the new land. Among the ideas they came up with are an environmental and nature sciences center, an amphitheater, tennis courts, soccer fields, a nature conservation complex, an animal sanctuary, and a 3,500 seat arena.
"We wanted to see what it could be," said Jenny Varner, the executive director of the DCCC Foundation. "We pulled together all these people who could help us put onto paper the potential."
"We took all these ideas and came up with a vision plan," Rittling said.
Now that the land has been donated to the school, the next step will be to raise funds for construction to make some of those ideas turn into reality.
They also acknowledge that fundraising may be difficult in this economy.
"Raising funds is not always an easy thing," Rittling said, "But with multiple resources coming together -- including grants from foundations and state dollars -- there's a variety of ways to raise money. You have to have an idea, and then you move from there."
tclodfelter@wsjournal.com
336-727-7371
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