Fairfields young softball players will finally have their home field. Fairfield Little League Girls Softball scored their final victory at the town boards Tuesday night for their field on Hoydens Lane, gaining approval from the Town Plan and Zoning Commission. President Scott Walker and the rest of the leagues coaches were celebrating Tuesday night after the decision.
Obviously, were very happy, Walker said. Its been a long process, but its great to finally get this approval.
Currently, FLLGS plays its games and holds its practices on a wide range of fields across town, but because softball does not use a raised mound like baseballs, the girls are limited in which of the towns public fields they are able to use. They currently share fields now with adult recreational leagues and high school teams, and have to schedule games and practices around them. This final decision means the town can now build them a dedicated field to call their own.
The towns Board of Selectmen, Board of Finance and Representative Town Meeting approved the $350,000 funding for the town to build the field in the summer of 2010, and the voter referendum on the plan could not draw enough votes to stop the field. But the zoning board still needed to approve the plans before construction could start. The commission heard complaints from neighbors worried about the added traffic, and that it would change the neighborhoods character. They also heard a formal intervention on behalf of wildlife in the current open space.
But the board voted 5-1 Tuesday to approve the plan. Commissioner James Kennelly explained that he did not feel that the field would be much more intrusive than the H. Smith Richardson Golf Course it will sit next to. He also said it was better for open space reasons than one possible alternative, for the town to sell the land to a developer.
Open space advocates, this is the best youre going to get, Kennelly said. Youre going to get probably 30 weeks out of the year where theres going to be nothing here.
The new field will be ready for play in the fall of 2012 at the earliest. The field will take longer to get ready than normal because it will be organically maintained, which requires more preparation time, but will be better for the environment. They cant just put sod down, Walker explained.
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