The Hillsborough Township Committee finalized their agreement with the Hillsborough Baseball League this week, allowing the organization to use the Willow Road Baseball Complex for four more years. The hope is that at the end of the four year lease, the Belle Mead GSA Depot property will be redeveloped to include a new baseball complex.
Residents in the Winding Way neighborhood adjacent to the Willow Road fields were pleased that the lease again forbids the use of lights at the complex, and puts limits on the length of the baseball season. They also were cautiously optimistic about the creation of a review committee that will make sure the lease is being adhered to.
But what intrigued me were the questions residents had about what would happen to the Willow Road Baseball Complex after 2012. My first impulse would be to shrink the complex, eliminate some of the seven fields - but keep two or three. Continue to plant trees as a buffer for the residents on Winding Way. Redevelop the grounds as a large community park, similar to Woodfield.
What would you do?
I think they should put a small strip mall in that area…make them wish they had the baseball fields back! Seriously they should make towns just for old people who don’t want to see and hear kids or school buses. I like that there is some sort of organized recreation on this side of Hillsborough. I was looking forward to when/if my child(ren?) played baseball that I wouldn’t have to drive to the other side of 206. Than again, the GSA site isn’t that far away. But I do think they should put a convenience store on Willow. This side of Hillsborough is lacking something like that. I’d suggest a Quickcheck. While I’m throwing out my demands I’d also like to see Kmart bulldozed and put a Target there in its place. We used to shop at Target in Bridgwater all the time when we lived closer to it.
ReplyDeleteWhen the Yankees announced their plans for the new Yankee Stadium, they were asked what would happen to the old stadium site. The original plan (don't know if this is still true today) was for the stadium itself to be torn down, and for a small ball field/recreational complex to be built in its place. That's what I was thinking about when I wrote this blog.
ReplyDeleteI suppose that commercial development in that corner of Hillsborough is supposed to take place at the site of the proposed "transit village" - but I wouldn't hold your breath.