New Hanover County’s newest park will open later this year near Harris Road in the Gordon Road area. There is a public meeting today at 6 p.m. at the county government center to inform the public about the progress of the park.

The county bought the land for the new Smith Creek Park from University of North Carolina Wilmington about five years ago. The land had been used as a sand mine by the North Carolina Department of Transportation. Since the purchase, the county has continued to use the land to mine and sell sand and has made about $700,000 off of the property, said Mark Boyer, the county’s public information officer.

The county also got a $500,000 grant from the NC Parks and Recreation Trust Fund, he said. The price of building the park was about $1.1 million, “so basically we got a huge park for nothing,” Boyer said in an email to the Business Journal.

Of the 92 acres, the lake takes up 35 acres. Boyer said some people used to call it Emerald Lake. “It was used to help market a neighboring subdivision,” he said.

The park will have a paved walking and bike trail, and access for kayak, canoe and other non-motorized boats, he said in an email.