Fairfield Hills—

Baseball Field Proposal Raises Nearby Residents’ Concerns

By Andrew Gorosko

Several residents living near Fairfield Hills are questioning the wisdom of the town’s proposal to build a new baseball field there, in view of various problems that arise when the two existing baseball fields at Fairfield Hills are in use.

The Parks and Recreation Commission is proposing the construction of a full-size baseball field with 90-foot base paths at the Fairfield Hills core campus. To make way for baseball field construction, Fairfield House would need to be demolished.

The baseball field construction proposal is a component of the town’s ongoing redevelopment of Fairfield Hills, a former state psychiatric hospital that the town bought from the state for $3.9 million in August 2004. The 187-acre site includes many large masonry buildings that formerly were used for patient care and services. Town redevelopment plans call for the demolition of some buildings.

Town representatives presented the baseball field proposal to Planning and Zoning Commission (P&Z) members at a May 3 public hearing. The P&Z took no action on the proposal. The P&Z is scheduled to reconvene the hearing on May 17 to accept additional development information from the town.

Resident Trish Wootton of 24 Mile Hill Road South told P&Z members that her family moved to the neighborhood four years ago. A public address system that is use at the two existing baseball fields along Mile Hill Road South, at times, is overly loud, she said.

Those two fields, known as Glander Field #1 and #2, are located southeast of Cochran House at Fairfield Hills.

Use of the two baseball fields results in parking problems in the area, Ms Wootton said. She asked whether the proposed 70 parking spaces for the new baseball would be sufficient.

Ms Wootton asked how the public can be expected to support the construction of a new baseball field if the use of two existing baseball fields is not managed well.

Ms Wootton posed questions to P&Z members about the traffic that would be generated by a new baseball field, whether a public address system would used there, and the planned hours for night lighting there.

Resident David Steiner of 6 Nunnawauk Road said the presence of the two existing fields creates parking problems in the area.

“Why are we building a field with lights?” he asked.

Also, Mr Steiner asked whether constructing a new playing field is an environmentally sound proposition.

P&Z member Lilla Dean, who served as chairman at the May 3 session, said the P&Z would work to ensure that the pesticides that would be used on a playing field would not make their way into area groundwater.

Ms Dean acknowledged that there are parking problems at many local athletic fields. P&Z members must obtain from the town attendance estimates for baseball games at the proposed field, she said.

Edward Marks, the acting chairman of the Parks and Recreation Commission, said recreation officials are aware of concerns about night lighting. Night lighting would be shut off by 10 pm, he said. The site proposed for the new field is farther away from residential areas that other possible sites for fields at Fairfield Hills, he said.

Resident Mary Ann Gonzales of 26 Mile Hill Road South said she has lived in the neighborhood since 2000. Local children need a place to play baseball, but the use of the public address system at the two existing fields can be annoying, she said.

Ms Gonzales asked whether the presence of baseball field lighting at the proposed field would encourage vandalism.

“We need to be able to manage these two small baseball fields” alongside Mile Hill Road South before the town constructs another field, she said.

“It’s not managed very well. It really isn’t,” she said, noting that the presence of the two fields causes parking problems, littering problems, and the intrusion of people onto private properties.

Resident Ruby Johnson of Chestnut Hill Road in Sandy Hook said of the baseball field construction proposal, “This may not be the best plan for Fairfield Hills. We should be doing long-range planning with this beautiful piece of property we have.”

The Fairfield Hills Authority must provide the public with complete plans for Fairfield Hills’ redevelopment, she said. “We need plans for Fairfield Hills. We need an overall what’s-going-to-happen,” she said.

“I’d like to see them save land for the future, for the next 20 years,” she said.

In response to the residents’ concerns, Parks and Recreation Director Barbara Kasbarian said recreation officials are seeking to resolve the parking problems at the two existing baseball fields.

“We’re really trying to enforce all of these regulations now, so that the neighbors who live next to these fields don’t have all of these problems,” she said.

Ms Kasbarian said she has discussed the parking problems with police.

Although it may be unsightly, a number of “No Parking” signs will be erected in appropriate areas to allow police to issue fines to parking violators, she said.

Consultant Gary Sorge of Stantec, Inc, representing the Parks and Recreation Commission, described the baseball field proposal to P&Z members. Stantec was formerly known as Vollmer Associates, LLP.

The baseball field would be constructed farther north than was initially proposed.

The amount of earthen cutting and filling on the site would be balanced to create a suitable playing area, he said. Existing paved surfaces in the area would be used for vehicle parking, he said, adding that after the field is constructed there would be an overall reduction of pavement in the general area.

“I would consider this a ‘smart’ field,” Mr Sorge said of the environmental planning that went into the project. Only Fairfield House would need to be demolished to make way for the field, he said.

In the mid 1990s, Fairfield House served as a state low-security prison for drug offenders known as Western Substance Abuse Treatment Unit (WSATU). It was the site of frequent prisoner escapes. Before that, the building was residence hall for Fairfield Hills psychiatric patients.

Consultant Tom Hammerberg of Stantec said that baseball field construction plans call for the installation of underground electric utility lines. At some point in the future, lighting towers would be installed to illuminate the field at night.

The lighting design would focus light on the field and seek to reduce light spillage to other areas, he said.

The field would be surrounded by fencing. Bluegrass would be planted on the irrigated field.

Consultant Scott Baillie of O&G Industries said the town would like to start the demolition of Fairfield House soon, so that the baseball field could be ready for use in the fall of 2008.

No underground utility lines that now exist would remain in place beneath the playing field, he said.

A stormwater treatment system that was requested by Trout Unlimited would be created on land adjacent to the baseball field’s outfield, Mr Baillie said.

The water from that system would eventually drain into Deep Brook. Trout Unlimited, a private conservation group, monitors water quality in Deep Brook, which is a breeding area for native trout.

Ms Dean pointed out that the baseball field site is within the town’s environmentally sensitive Aquifer Protection District (APD), an overlay zone above the Pootatuck Aquifer where land uses are tightly regulated for environmental protection purposes.

Ms Dean said the town should present to the P&Z a document from the Inland Wetlands Commission (IWC) stating that the construction and use of the proposed baseball field would create no significant adverse effects on the aquifer. The aquifer is the source of two public water supplies.

Also, Ms Dean said the town should present to the P&Z letters of endorsement for the project from the Parks and Recreation Commission, the Fairfield Hills Authority, (FHA) and Harrall-Michalowski Associates (HMA). HMA is the consulting firm which formulated the Fairfield Hills Master Plan for the town.

Also, the applicant must submit landscaping plans for the project, Ms Dean said.