Michael Crane | Uptown News

It’s taken more than a decade, but plans to develop a joint-use field at McKinley Elementary School may finally be realized in the next two years.

The North Park Recreation Council approved the General Development Plan (GDP) for the field at their May 28 meeting by a 3-1 vote. The council and the more than 15 community members in attendance agreed that the latest plan by Estrada Land Planning addressed many past concerns, especially the community’s plea for natural grass.

“This is a vast improvement over what we’ve seen previously — the trees and the grass,” said Matthew Eisen, who lives adjacent to the proposed site. “I’m really happy that you’ll be having natural turf in there.”

In the latest iteration of the GDP, 2.67 acres in the southeast corner of McKinley Elementary will be converted into a joint-use field, including a 1.07-acre field of natural grass. Currently, the four acres to the south of the school are divided between a grassy lawn open to the public and a fenced school section covered by asphalt and decomposed granite.

If the joint-use agreement goes into effect, a large section of the fenced area would open for public use at nights, weekends and holidays, but remain closed during school hours.

“Typically the agreement with the school district is it’s for children’s use a half an hour before school starts and a half an hour after school ends. The rest of the time it’s open to the general public,” said Anthony Bernal, director of business and community projects for Council President Todd Gloria.

Plans for the field have stalled in the past because parents and neighbors insisted upon natural landscaping within the joint-use area, while the City’s Parks and Recreation Department proposed artificial turf as the cheaper and more sustainable option. Although the school district will cover the cost of constructing the field, the City is responsible for field maintenance under the joint-use agreement.

However, the latest GDP does include a natural grass field in addition to several new shade trees, a decomposed granite running path, and a 1.1-acre asphalt area of mixed-use courts.

“I’m really happy that it’s going forward,” said Shannon Scoggins, who sits on the McKinley Beautification Committee. Although she still had some concerns about trees being given enough space to mature, Scoggins was satisfied with the current iteration of the plan.

Exact hours of opening and closing the park are still to be determined, but there would be six gates leading into the park: three for school access and three for the public. During school hours, the public gates would be locked and vice versa. The existing lawn in the southwest corner of the site — popular among dog owners — would not be touched and remains outside the joint-use area. There would be one public gate facing this lawn, another facing south onto Palm Street, and a third facing east onto McKinley Street. An eight-foot chain-link fence will likely surround the field.

Bernal said that there would be no floodlights on the joint-use field and no set curfew for park use. However, if issues of vandalism or mischief arise, nighttime gate closures are a possibility. The field is too small for organized activities such as Little League, but small gatherings would be welcome.

“As far as the programming of the space, that’s really determined by the community,” Bernal said. “If the community wants to host an event out there, they’re allowed to do that. If the school district wants to host an event out there, they’re allowed to do that.”

Bernal also cautioned that one downside of natural turf is that the field will need to be closed from time to time for reseeding.

Of the four Recreation Council members present, Vice Chair Robert Barry was the only one to vote against approving the plans. Although he said he favored the majority of the GDP, Barry was not willing to approve it without an additional recommendation of expanding the grass area as much as possible.

The GDP will next go before the North Park Parks and Recreation Design Review Committee and then the North Park Parks and Recreation Board for final approval. If everything proceeds as expected, the GDP could be finalized by the end of this year, and construction could begin by the summer of 2015. However, any delays could spell the end of the project, since the GDP funds will not be set aside indefinitely.

“If we delay it for another six months, if we delay it for another eight months, that money may not be there,” Bernal said.