Sixteen years after it was first suggested, legislation to transfer the bean field property at the end of the Natchez Trace Parkway to the City of Natchez will be introduced to the state legislature.

Natchez attorney Walter Brown is drafting the legislation, which he will take to the city board of aldermen next week for endorsement before handing it off to legislators for filing.

“At that time, I will want to explain to the board what I have drafted for them to look at and bless,” Brown said. “Even though it is a general bill and not a local-and-private bill, the legislature — and our delegation — will want to know this is what the city wants. I am a diplomat without credentials since I do not represent the city, so I am going to them with this first.”

The bill would deed 67 acres of property — 37 acres at the bean field area, 30 more across U.S. 61 — from the State of Mississippi to the city of Natchez. The United States officially deeded the land over to the state in August, a move that required a 2013 act of congress.

The bean field area was originally intended to be the terminus of the Natchez Trace Parkway, but in the 1990s that location was changed to Liberty Road.

The land was undeveloped, and when the park service acquires land, it does not have the legal capacity to sell it, Natchez Mayor Butch Brown said.

“The bean field became surplus property when the terminus changed,” Mayor Brown said. “Our deal with (U.S. Sen. Thad Cochran) in getting his help to get the land returned was that if they would return it to the state, we would work with the state to return it to the city, with the understanding being that we would continue to use the part of the property next to the school property for educational or recreational purposes.”

The proposal also included that the city would sell the balance of the property not used for recreational or education purposes to generate revenue to pay for the new Emerald Mound connector on the Natchez Trace, and whatever funds were not used for the connector would be directed to the National Park Service to develop the Fort Rosalie site in Natchez, Mayor Brown said.

“In other words, we would use funds generated by the Natchez Trace Parkway property to the park service develop the Natchez Trace Parkway,” he said.

The city currently has a lease on the bean field property. While the property has figured significantly in a number of plans to develop a city-county recreation complex through the years, it has not yet been dedicated to a specific use.

“At this time, there are no plans for anything there, but that is not to say there are not any plans for the future,” Mayor Brown said.

The federal legislation deeding the land to the state has a caveat requiring any development on the bean field property to be compatible with the use of the parkway.

“In other words, they don’t want a really tall building, a cell tower or excessive lighting that you can see from the parkway,” Attorney Brown said.

Walter Brown was city attorney from 1992 to 2000, and has been involved with efforts to include the bean field property in a recreation plan since then, but he is not under contract with the city for this project, Mayor Brown said.