Glitch causes Forest Grove to re-think Lincoln Park proposal
Recreation -- Pacific University to propose putting three sports fields on city parcel at Thatcher and David Hill
A potential stumbling block in Pacific University’s quest to renovate Lincoln Park may have inadvertently made the school’s proposal even more attractive to Forest Grove city officials.
Pacific learned last week that its final offer was rejected for a three-acre piece of property at the north end of the city-owned park, which was slated to house parts of a picnic area and fields for recreational soccer, baseball and softball.
Forced to scramble, Pacific and Forest Grove officials have come up with a proposal that would have the university pick up the tab for the construction of two baseball/softball diamonds and a soccer field on land already owned by the city at the southwest corner of David Hill and Thatcher Roads.
“I think this is actually a much better plan,” said Ken Schumann, director of athletics at Pacific. “We were looking for a way to accommodate everybody, particularly youth soccer and rec softball. The new proposal is better on all ends.”
City officials have long wanted to develop a park on the 26-acre site, a mix of woods and cropland and have earmarked money from the recent Metro bond measure to purchase an additional three acres adjacent to the parcel.
Forest Grove parks director Tom Gamble said the city currently has no funds budgeted for development of the park and was figuring it would not be able to map out new sports fields until the parcel was incorporated into a master park plan later this year.
The new proposal, scheduled to be in front of the city’s recreation committee next Wednesday morning, would speed up that timetable.
Reaction to the new proposal from youth sports officials in Forest Grove was overwhelmingly positive this week.
“From a youth baseball standpoint, we would still have access to the improved facilities at Lincoln Park, plus we would gain two other fields,” said Phil Carow, head of Junior Baseball of Oregon in Forest Grove. “This is great. I hope it goes through.”
The original plan called for Pacific to acquire several pieces of property adjacent to Lincoln Park in an effort to expand the park boundaries and increase parking.
The university was then prepared to spend nearly $8 million to turn the park into a world-class athletic facility, complete with a nine-lane, Olympic-quality track ringing a FieldTurf multi-purpose soccer and lacrosse field, plus brand new baseball and softball complexes with permanent grandstand seating, press boxes and other amenities.
One problem with the original proposal, however, was the space at the north end of the park.
The planned competition softball complex was too small for recreational slow-pitch leagues, and the field at the north end of the park had to be tweaked from its original incarnation to accommodate those leagues. The soccer field also overlapped with the softball field, meaning the two could not be used simultaneously.
Under the new proposal, it would be possible to build two full-size softball diamonds that could be used at the same time, plus a full-size soccer field.
“The biggest advantage, the way I see it, is that softball would be able to play two games at the same time, which is something they can do now at Lincoln Park but wouldn’t have been able to do under the original plan,” said Schumann.
Another potential bonus for city and school officials is that by building the fields on land already owned by the city, Pacific could ultimately save the money it would have spent on land acquisition and kick it back into building top-notch facilities at Thatcher Park.
“It would be nice if that was the case,” said Schumann. “We would be able to put more money into the fields. The fields are really what’s important to this project.”
Pacific had targeted Feb. 1 as the groundbreaking date on the construction at Lincoln Park, and with that date fast approaching officials were forced to act quickly and come up with an alternate plan when the property negotiations broke down.