WEST LEBANON — The city is scrapping a proposal to build playing fields on a 20-acre wooded property behind the former Kmart in West Lebanon after conservation officials took issue with the idea during a meeting last week.
Members of the Lebanon Conservation Commission worried that building playing fields would require the city to cut down trees and could contribute to future flooding.
The parcel — situated at the confluence of the Connecticut and Mascoma rivers — should remain largely undisturbed so it can serve as a wildlife habitat and hiking and fishing spot, they said.
“I think getting playing fields in Lebanon is an uphill battle,” Ernst Oidtmann, chairman of the commission, said in a video recording of the meeting.
“Just look at the map here,” he added while a diagram of the Route 12A corridor was on-screen. “There’s too much parking comparative to nature.”
The commission’s decision is a blow to the city’s efforts to build new fields for its soccer, baseball and softball leagues. Recreation advocates say there’s a deficit in open space that’s translated into less playing and practice time, scheduling issues and fewer opportunities to rest turf between sessions.
“Monday through Saturday during a sports season, those fields are used all the time,” Paul Coats, director of the Lebanon Recreation, Arts and Parks Department, told the commission.
Coats said there’s “no relief in sight” to the current shortage of playing fields. And while the city explored building elsewhere, he said, it’s difficult to find a location without drainage or access issues.
Coats last month proposed to build three playing fields and a 40-car parking lot along the eastern edge of the city-owned Two Rivers Conservation Area.
The fields would have operated from dawn to dusk, require no lighting and be served by a small driveway. In turn for letting the city build the fields, Coats proposed helping contribute to the maintenance of an existing trail network.
While some Conservation Commission members were initially skeptical, others said last week that they came to oppose the proposal after visiting the site.
Member Don Lacey said he initially thought the project was a “win-win” for both recreation and conservation. But on a recent trip, he noticed a collection of eastern cottonwood trees in the area of the proposed fields.
“Virtually all of that would need to be cut down,” he said, adding that the sound from nearby Interstate 89 also could make it undesirable for organized sports.
Meanwhile, member Bruce James said he researched the area’s soils and found that those on the Two Rivers property are “very sandy and very permeable.”
The area is prone to flooding and may not suit the proposed fields, said James, a retired professor of soil chemistry at the University of Maryland.
Coats acknowledged that a wetlands mitigation project by the Army Corps of Engineers could prevent at least one of the playing fields from being built.
He added that the Upper Valley Land Trust, which purchased the property in 1989 and still has some legal rights to protect it, declined to review the project prior to Conservation Commission approval.
“They do not wish to insert their own land ethic into the discussion,” Coats said.
However, Coats said, his department intends to be good stewards of whatever land it oversees.
“We do try to preserve these areas and we understand the value of it and the responsibility that’s entailed with preserving different lands,” he said. “But we also, I believe, have to take a very holistic approach to this entire city and what the health of our whole city needs.”
While the commission didn’t formally vote on the project, Coats said Wednesday that it’s unlikely to move forward.
“The message was clear. The project needs to come off the table,” he said in a phone interview. “Unfortunately the quest (for another site) is wrought with problems. There are no good options.”
Tim Camerato can be reached at tcamerato@vnews.com or 603-727-3223.