At the September 25 Hillsborough Township Committee meeting, Surrey Drive area residents expressed their concerns about the proposed construction of a youth baseball field in their neighborhood. Their criticisms were many, and valid. And despite its prior approval of the plan, the Township Committee was right to put a stop to the rehabilitation of the field until all of the residents' concerns were addressed.
The Borough Bombers are a travel team made up of eleven 9-year-olds and nine coaches. The coaches are set to construct the playing field at no cost to the township. At first this seems like a great deal for Hillsborough - a baseball field, which would be owned by the town, to be built for free, on an open space parcel already designated for recreation. In fact, a travel soccer team played on a field there in 2001. But a closer look at this parcel of open space shows us why this area may not be suited for organized team sports.
First of all, the field is not easy to find. I took a drive out to that neighborhood several weeks ago, armed with a printout of Hillsborough's GIS map - with the Surrey Drive field clearly marked - and I couldn't find it. There is no off-street parking in the area, and I could not find any place along Surrey Drive or the other adjacent roads where the field is actually visible from the road. The field is only accessible by small footpaths, which themselves are hard to find.
I am also concerned about getting an ambulance onto the site should an accident occur. And of course, as many residents mentioned, there are no restroom facilities at this location.
To his credit, police Chief Paul Kaminsky has said that the problems with the site are "correctable". That is the kind of attitude we like to see, especially when the goal is a safe convenient place for kids to play. But I'm not convinced that the Surrey Drive field is the best location for the Borough Bombers.
Below are two satellite maps. Both are at the same scale for comparison. The top one is the Surrey Drive field. The bottom one is another open space parcel in Hillsborough, also designated for recreation, but not being used. Like Surrey Drive, it is in a residential neighborhood. But this field is bigger, has street parking adjacent to it, and would be able to accommodate off-street parking and emergency vehicle access by breaking the curb in one spot.
You decide.
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Hi, Greg - those are soccer fields now, arent' they? Are they dry? In decent condidtion? Currently in use? Where is the adjacent parking? Or do you just mean on-street parking? Did Chief Kaminsky comment on the viability of using these fields?
ReplyDeleteThat’s one of the problems with government ownership of private property. The people around the taxpayer paid for open space tend to think it is their private domain, which of course it isn’t.
ReplyDeleteSo interestingly enough if this situation develops into a toss-up between the two fields, we’ll all be able to sit back and watch the effected residents play the games of -- We need more recreational space. Not in my backyard. --- We’ll see them flip flop between each stance depending on were the fickle finger of Ball fields, is point at the time.
Just to clarify - the other field that I talked about is only there as an example of other spots that might be available. All I did was use the GIS map, and the Google satellite map, looking for another unused open recreation field. I might have also mentioned Flagtown Park, which has a baseball diamond in poor condition, and off-street parking for three to five cars.
ReplyDeleteMuch of the Flagtown park is wet all spring. Sometimes actually under water and in my opinion not usable. Don't know if that is true of this area, but certainly that would need to be checked first. I think parking is likely a problem there too.
ReplyDeleteBTW, 08844 - I wasn't taking any sides or even voicing any opinion. I was only asking Greg a few questions about that parcel.
ReplyDeleteSpokey - I remember the Flagtown field being wet and virtually unusable, and even dangerous. I saw that first hand when my kids were playing baseball there. I don't think I had to site walk it for the planning board, but who know? Maybe I did.