Flint Park Work Session:
Balancing Athletics and Environment?

by Judy Silberstein

(May 28, 2003) Space for contemplating nature? Space for baseball, soccer and lacrosse? How about composting leaves?

How to balance environmental, athletic and house-keeping functions in Flint Park became the major focus of a work session in Larchmont’s Village Hall on Wednesday, May 28. Working from a draft of a preliminary proposal presented at a January work session, park planning consultant Monroe Eberlin met with representatives of the Village Board and various community organizations to consider alternative solutions that would address concerns that have been raised in subsequent meetings, memos, and e-mails.

Drawings by Eberlin & Eberlin; color added by Larchmont Gazette

“This [original] plan optimized athletics and that’s what we were asked to do,” explained Eberlin. “It’s minimizing the water area.” But Mayor Ken Bialo stressed that the first set of drawings were only a jumping off point for further study. For Wednesday, deepening the Flint Park environmental area and linking it to the one behind the Hommocks Middle School were two of five topics Eberlin was asked to address.

Seated around the conference room table were members of “first tier” organizations (including Flint Park Conservancy, Recreation Committee, Soccer League, and Parks and Trees Committee), those who were involved in the original brain-storming sessions that provided guidance for the Eberlin plans and who have been invited by Mayor Bialo to serve as the core planning group at this phase of the planning process. The Mayor had planned to hear from “second tier” organizations and the general public later in the process, but unaffiliated individuals and members of the Coastal Zone Management Commission (CZMC) did appear at last evenings meeting and were allowed to sit at the table and to offer opinions and suggestions.

At the outset, the Mayor cleared confusion about the purpose and requirements of the $120,375 Environmental Protection Fund grant Larchmont received last October. “It can’t be all environmental,” said the mayor, “It’s not in the grant.”

Over the past seven years, the Village has applied for a number of grants to improve Flint Park, but the one that was ultimately funded was to “expand and improve playing fields, restore native plant life, provide waterfront access and visibility,” according to an October press release from Governor Pataki.

Working with the original drawings, Eberlin used cutouts of soccer and baseball fields to demonstrate possible placements of fields. Equipped with his own set of plans, Roger Holden from the Flint Park Conservancy suggested a configuration that appeared to maximize both athletic and environmental interests.

Rather than moving the baseball field closer to the water, he called for moving it further inland and shifting its position so the afternoon sun would be less likely to irritate players at home plate. The current berm and trees could remain, to shield the nature area from the commotion on the ball fields, or could be removed to open up views of the water from throughout the park.

Would Holden’s concept – or something similar – provide what Larchmont residents want from Flint Park? Would it achieve the proper balance between environmental and playing field interests? Eberlin was charged with studying the questions and returning for the next meeting to present his findings.

“It was a good exchange on both sides of the issue,” summarized Bruce Habig, Chairman of the Recreation Committee. “We gave Eberlin a lot to work on.”

“If there is to be serious consideration of moving the large field further away from the nature area and still retaining the soccer fields, then there would be a better balance between the recreational use and the environmental improvements,” said Godick from the Coastal Zone group.

Leaving Village Hall with new assignments and hands full of drawings, Monroe Eberlin reflected, “It was good to get the input of the community as a whole. It revised the parameters we originally worked with.”

“These committee people are to be commended for their constructive ideas,” he added.