Wednesday, Mar. 11, 2009

Public to weigh in on park proposal

CLAYTON — Residents will have a chance to weigh in on a proposed park on Glen Laurel Road.

The town will host a public session from 5 till 7 p.m. Thursday, March 12, at The Clayton Center, 111 E. 2nd St. A park committee will present its recommendations for the 60 acres of land.

The proposed park includes a baseball field, a full-size athletic field and a smaller soccer or lacrosse field. It also includes a disc-golf course and a two-mile walking trail. A dog park might even be thrown in the mix. The park-planning group, which includes some town leaders and community members, considered several options for the site. But every option had a walking trail, playground, baseball diamond and disc-golf course. Only the playing fields varied.

“It’s just we’re trying to [address] the identified need for a baseball field,” said Dean Penny, chairman of the park’s advisory board.

A 2004 plan from the town’s Parks and Recreation Department showed that east Clayton needed a park. The public has also called for walking trails, a dog park and disc golf — a game much like regular golf, but where players throw a disc into baskets.

A site map shows that disc golf could take up a large swath of land in the northwest corner of the park. Councilman Bob Satterfield questioned setting aside that much land for the game, which has become popular in the Triangle. “That looks like an awful lot of land to dedicate to disc golf,” he said.

But that area — which is heavily wooded — could serve other purposes too, Penny said. Talks could be in the works to put a Boy Scouting facility there, he said.

But that area provides only one option for a dog park, which prompted much discussion among Town Council members last week. Initially, three acres across Glen Laurel Road were marked for a dog park. But some people were worried about safety and the terrain of the area.

A one-acre spot in the disc golf course is another option, but Penny said he doesn’t like the idea. “If it can be worked out across the street, I think everybody would feel better about that — or a different location,” he said.

Council members talked about the possibility of building several smaller dog parks around town.

For the soccer field, Penny recommended synthetic turf. That surfacing would be more expensive at the start, but it’s cheaper to maintain than grass, Town Manager Steve Biggs said.

The park would be built with $1.8 million of the $4 million parks bond Clayton voters approved last year. The town could also use a $475,000 grant from Johnston County.