At the end of Rosewell Plantation Road on the shores of the York River and Aberdeen Creek in Gloucester sits a parcel of 431 acres that was acquired nearly a decade ago to become the Middle Peninsula State Park.

However, because of a lack of funding, both for development and staffing, very little progress has been made to ready this land for public use.

“We were fortunate that we were able to acquire the land for future public use,” said park manager Tim Shrader, who is employed by the Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation and also oversees Belle Isle State Park in Lancaster.

In 2010, a master plan was written for the park, which forecast that day use of the park would begin for the public by 2016. Though reaching that goal is still possible, Shrader said such use would be limited. “If there is funding to create it, a small parking area and hiking trails are most likely all that could be developed by that time,” he said.

It will cost more than $...