Acknowledging it would need to adjust the request upon further review, the Parks & Recreation Commission on Tuesday voted to submit a $3 million Community Preservation application for a new Pyne Field design.

Per diem Parks & Rec Director Jon Lewitus presented new designs for the project. He highlighted that the updated layout prepared by Gale Associates would split the proposed baseball field and cricket pitch. Each field would have its own parking lot, eliminating any need to cross an easement used by trucks from JB Sawmill.

Two designs for the cricket pitch were developed by the designers. Lewitus said that the town cricket organizations had expressed interest in having a tournament-sized pitch. That design would reduce the number of available parking spaces to 32. A smaller pitch design would have 58 parking spaces but cost $500,000 more.

“By having a tournament-grade field it allows … different leagues to participate,” said Lewitus.

The commission needed to select one of the plans in order to submit an official request for funding from the Community Preservation Committee ahead of the application deadline. 

Member Brad Fenn confirmed that the cricket organizations had expressed interest in having a tournament pitch. Vice chair Dan Terry said the larger field had the potential to be multi-use, but he worried about the reduced parking.

“When you do [a tournament], you need parking for four teams, not two,” said Terry. “To me … the bigger field has less parking but it would require more parking.”

Representatives from JB Sawmill in attendance stated that parking overflow could cause hazards on their easement. 

“How do you prevent them from parking up top to access the cricket field down below?” asked owner Josh Brassard.

“Limited parking for me is a nonstarter,” said chair Kyle Smith. “I think it causes too many problems.”

Added Smith: “We can’t have limited spots to the point we’re going to be dealing with overflow. We just can’t.”

CPC chair provides input

Members asked CPC chair Ken Weismantel, who was in attendance to give guidance on Parks & Rec’s funding requests, how the commission should proceed as it debated the cricket pitch design.

Weismantel advised that Parks & Rec could break the project into pieces and submit for the baseball field this funding season. It would be able to ask for the cricket pitch next year.

“We would prefer you do what you really want to do long term and get to the right answer first,” Weismantel said.

Terry called the baseball field the “logical first phase” of the Pyne Field project but admitted the need for the cricket pitch was greater.

Weismantel informed the commission it could submit an option and come back with a final decision by the middle of November. He urged a decision be made that night, however, because the CPC would be starting its hearings this Thursday.

“I’m in favor of making a choice and putting something into CPC,” said Terry, “but over the next … five weeks, tops, we have a lot of questions to answer, including what is the commitment of the intended user group to pay fees that will maintain this field in a way that Hopkinton can be proud of.”

Smith directed Lewitus to obtain additional information from Gale Associates regarding the project. Areas of concern included irrigation and field surfacing for the cricket field and how to preserve parking spaces for a tournament-sized pitch. 

Following a comment from Brassard about whether there would be improvements to the easement, Smith stressed that finding a response to that concern also was important.

Parks & Rec voted unanimously to submit the design with the smaller cricket pitch to the CPC for funding consideration in the amount of $3 million. The commission will begin working on refining the details of the request at a meeting planned for next week.

Prior to the vote, Weismantel noted his committee “will probably just zero out” the $1 million in CPC funds already allocated for the project and consider this request separate from that amount.

Other CPC applications finalized

Weismantel provided the commission insight into what the CPC will expect from Parks & Rec’s other funding requests this year. 

Lewitus noted those projects will be the retrofitting of lights at Carrigan Park — done in partnership with Hopkinton Little League — and resubmitting a request for lights at the Fruit Street pickleball courts.

Smith explained that the resubmission is the result of “repeated, persistent requests” by pickleball users to get lights. The measure went before Annual Town Meeting last year as part of Article 20, but it was pulled out and considered separately before being voted down by a narrow margin.

Weismantel said the Fruit Street project would be harder to sell to voters the next time around. “The environmental aspects that were brought up … we’ve got to get an answer for that,” he said. 

In addition, he recommended both the pickleball lights and the Carrigan Park retrofitting go before the Planning Board for review. He stated it would help work out the concepts and serve as an educational process that will help with the end goal of Annual Town Meeting.

“We need some more education, because that was a tough one,” he remarked. “I don’t like to lose at Town Meeting.”

In relation to Pyne Field, Weismantel noted both the CPC and Capital Improvement Committee would be looking at how field maintenance is going to be funded moving forward. Lewitus informed the CPC chair that the cricket pitch is designed to have natural grass, and its maintenance costs would be less than the baseball field.