Country Park's Back Door Is Closed. Here's the Way In Before Winter Wonderlights.

Last summer the parking lot shared by the Greensboro Science Center and Country Park held about 518 cars. During the second phase of the current construction it drops to about 387. When the work is finished it will hold more than 600. While the work is underway, the cost lands mostly on Country Park, whose easiest entrance has been closed since late July.

All of this ties back to one project. The new lot is the first piece of a campus build-out on Lawndale Drive that will eventually put a five-story rainforest dome next to the park's lakes. Before then, two dates matter. Winter Wonderlights opens November 18, and the City has given only a loose "by December" for the end of construction.

Where the Way In Moved

According to the City of Greensboro's Country Park page, you can't get into the park from the Science Center lot right now, and Country Park visitors can't park there. The Orman Road lot is closed too. Three ways in are still open:

1. The Nathanael Greene entrance at 3905 Nathanael Greene Dr. This is the City's first listed parking option.
2. The Jaycee Park lot on Jaycee Park Drive. The City lists the address as 3802 and the Science Center's notice lists 3801. Either way, it's the lot at Jaycee Park.
3. On foot from Guilford Courthouse National Military Park. Walkers can enter from Tour Stop #4 near the Guilford County Veterans' Memorial. The battlefield's own Old Battleground Road lot stays open.

Getting in is only part of it. The Science Center's construction notice lists closures well beyond the parking lot:

The bike rule gets the most explaining on the City's page. Walkers are being sent along the sidewalk by the lakefront, and the City says that sidewalk isn't wide enough for pedestrians, park users, and cyclists together. So the park is closed to bike traffic until the project is done. The City has also said the Country Park Shuttle won't run for the rest of the 2026 season.

The rest of the park is still open from the open entrances. That includes the dog park with separate large- and small-breed areas, the 1.67 miles of paved trail, and the two fishing lakes.

Why the Lot Comes First, and Who Is Paying for It

This is a surface lot, not a parking deck. City Council agenda materials put the whole project at $1.65 million. The City is contributing $900,000 and the Science Center is putting in $750,000 of private money, about 45% of the total. The work adds 137 spaces for what the City calls the Battleground Parks District.

It took years to get here. Council approved a $375,000 agreement on March 21, 2023, and approved bond proceeds for the lot on August 5, 2024. A May 26, 2026 agenda asked for another $525,000 contract amendment. The bond money goes back to the $70 million Parks and Recreation bond that Greensboro voters approved in July 2022. At the time, city leaders said $20 million of it would support the Science Center's plans for growth.

Three sources give three timelines:

• The Science Center's construction notice said work would start Monday, July 27, 2026, and take about 90 days. That puts the target around October 25, just a few days after this post goes up.
• Samet Corporation, the builder, said in its October 1 update that the lot is "on track for completion in time for Winter Wonder Lights."
• The City's Country Park page says only that construction should be finished "by December."

There's also a fourth date. That same May agenda proposed extending the parking contract term through May 30, 2027. That is a contract term, not a forecast for reopening. No published notice says when bikes come back to the roadway or when Orman Road reopens, and those are the closures that matter most to regular park users.

The Lights Arrive on the Same Deadline

The new lot was timed for Winter Wonderlights because that event is the Science Center's biggest stretch of evening crowds. The seventh annual run, which FOX8 reported on October 16, goes from November 18, 2026, through January 3, 2027. It's open nightly from 5 to 10 p.m., with tickets from $15 to $25 and free entry for children two and under. Community discount nights cost $15.

This year adds a few new things:

• Laser Holidays, a 15-minute holiday laser show in the OmniSphere Theater. It runs throughout the evening and is included with admission.
• An updated Merry Mermaids experience, where a mermaid tells a goodnight story about a sleepy Science Center every 30 minutes from 6 to 8:30 p.m. It's included with admission.
• A sensory-friendly night on November 17, the night before the public opening, from 5:30 to 9 p.m. Tickets are $15, and children two and under get in free. The Science Center plans quieter music, quiet zones, and sensory bags.

According to the Science Center's parking information, parking is free and first-come, first-served, with overflow at Jaycee Park and the Nathanael Greene entrance. No special holiday shuttle or overflow plan for Winter Wonderlights has been announced. If the lot is finished on schedule, the event opens with more than 600 spaces. If it isn't, Winter Wonderlights opens alongside a construction-phase lot that can drop as low as about 387 spaces, which is the same lot Country Park visitors are already being sent away from.

What the Cones Are Actually For

The parking lot is the easy part. Behind it, Samet is building Expedition Rainforest: The Greensboro Biodome and Aquatic Rehabilitation and Conservation Center, or ARCC. The Biodome is a five-story tropical rainforest habitat. The ARCC will handle aquatic rehabilitation, propagation, quarantine, and conservation work. WFMY reported that the complex covers 32,000 square feet and will stretch from the current center all the way to Lawndale Drive. Planned features include an outdoor tortoise exhibit, a "bird island," a treehouse on "sloth island," a clouded leopard viewing area, and the skeleton of an 18-foot giant sloth.

Here is where things stood in Samet's October 1 update:

• The Biodome's structural steel frame is fully up, and finish painting is underway.
• Crews are installing artificial rockwork, sculpted shotcrete that becomes the caves and ledges inside the habitat.
• Installation of the ETFE roof has started. ETFE is a clear polymer film used in place of glass because it lets through more of the UV light the plants need. The facade goes on later.

In the same WFMY report, Executive Director Glenn Dobrogosz described the visitor's path as going from "a lush, jungle-like environment under the five-story Biodome" into an ARCC that is "going to look and smell like the ocean." WFMY reported that construction should wrap up in April or May 2027, with a grand opening tentatively set for that summer. An earlier WXII report gave late summer or early fall 2027. Both reports point to 2027, and neither pins down the season.

That's why 137 spaces is the right-sized fix. Dobrogosz told WFMY that the Science Center is also planning a restaurant, rental space, and retail complex to support the 750,000 visitors it expects each year. The lot going in this fall is sized for that future campus. When it opens, Country Park visitors get their shared entrance back, next to a neighbor that is planning for many more visitors.

Until then, the practical plan for a walk, a fishing morning, or a dog park visit is to park at 3905 Nathanael Greene Dr. or the Jaycee Park lot and leave the bike at home.

If you live near the Battleground parks and want to talk through how a project like the Biodome changes the area around Lawndale Drive, Melody Davis is happy to walk through it with you, no pressure and no timeline. Let's Connect.