Town Meeting’s ambivalent voting on the purchase of a 6-acre parcel on Old Mill Road for a new athletic field flipped from just shy of passing in the spring to passing by a hair in the fall. The purchase and sale agreement has been signed. But before the soccer balls can start flying across the town’s newly purchased plot, a lot of things need to happen.
First, the agreement with the sellers, Timothy and Sarah Arnold, includes a 45-day contingency period after signing. During that time, the town can back out of the sale if an environmental assessment of the property shows it is not suitable for an athletic field. That investigation is currently underway. Recreation Director Anne McWaters told the Park and Recreation Commission at its Oct. 6 meeting that a licensed site professional took soil samples at the field on Oct. 1, and results should be available in the next few weeks.
Once the commission is satisfied that the land is appropriate for the multipurpose field it envisions installing on the property, funding will need to be obtained before design can begin. The town has no concrete estimate at this time, but the figure of $2 million has been bandied about by town officials. That would include the cost of designing and constructing the field, a driveway, and a parking area.
A three-pronged funding approach
At a public forum held Sept. 11 to discuss buying the Old Mill Road land, resident Paul Green announced a private group, Harvard Home Field Project, had been created to raise money for the design and construction of the field. Green told the Press about $80,000 has been raised so far. He said the group had put fundraising on hold pending the vote and is now in the process of developing contact lists.
At that same meeting, McWaters said she would search for grant opportunities, and that field development would be a candidate for Community Preservation Act funds. Stu Sklar, chair of the Community Preservation Committee, told the crowd that, should the land purchase go through, the CPC would use a multiyear bond to fund any additional town-approved development costs, as it is doing for the reconstruction of the McCurdy Track.
At the Oct. 6 Park and Rec meeting, McWaters asked if the commission wanted to apply for fiscal 2027 CPA funds for the field project. The deadline to apply is Oct. 24, she said, but without a design it would be difficult to know how much money to ask for. Park and Rec member Marisa Steele said maybe the design could be funded first, and Harvard Home Field Project might be able to help with that.
Once funding is obtained and design is complete, Park and Rec must get approval from the Conservation Commission before development can begin. The property intersects with “buffer zones,” areas within 100 feet of wetlands, in three places, and the Conservation Commission has jurisdiction over what can be built in those buffer zones. But the commission will not start discussing that issue until it receives a notice of intent from the town with a design plan. Since design cannot begin until funds are available, the commission’s decision will come after the 45-day contingency period expires.
At September’s public field purchase forum, opponents expressed concern about the uncertainty of Conservation Commission approval. But Town Administrator Dan Nason said, should the commission deny the request to build a field there, the property would still have value to the town because it is adjacent to Harvard Park. Open Space Committee Chair Jim Lee added that it would be protected from development and “preserved forever.”
The Park and Recreation Commission will meet again Oct. 20 to discuss design funding, including possibly applying for CPC funds.
