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Lansing's Town Board approved $1,000 to pay for preliminary drawings of new ball fields that could be built on town-owned land across the street from the current ball fields.  Part of an agenda that new Town Supervisor Scott Pinney brought to the board's organizational meeting, it would be the first step in creating a town center where the current ball fields are located.  "We would take these fields and move them," Pinney explained.  "We would no longer have fields over here."

The reason for the move is that when the Town obtained the more than 150 acres between Auburn Road (34B) and the Gossett Center it came with deed restrictions.  It can be used for recreational purposes, but not for commercial or private building.  The Town Board has long considered applying to the State for a change to the condition, viewing the land as an ideal place to develop a town center.

Pinney's plan jump starts the process by locating a future Town center on land that is not restricted, and using the acreage to the north for its allowed use: recreation.  By making the swap Pinney says the Town could consolidate all its ball fields into one location, making the small fields near the Highway Department unnecessary so that parents with different aged kids could go to one location during games and practices.  "There are parents who have kids up here and kids down there," noted Councilman Matt Besemer.  "They're running back and forth."

He also noted that Small Fry Football parents have been raising money to build a football field across the street from Central Fire Station on Ridge Road.  He said that the Town location would be better, and that money could potentially be used for football fields there, reducing taxpayer monies needed to build them.  Deputy Supervisor Connie Wilcox noted that the plan could also include walking paths and other recreational elements.  Pinney noted that the plan would not use the entire acreage, but would be located on the southern portion farthest from the Gossett Center and closest to the road across the street from the current ball fields.  "Once we got those drawings we could show them to different people and get feedback," Pinney said.

Part of Pinney's platform when he ran for Supervisor last year, was to make the Town more friendly to business development, and to get the ball rolling on an eventual town center in the section of Route 34B between East Shore and Triphammer Roads.  The initial study he proposed on his second day as Supervisor begins to clear a path for that process to begin sooner by bypassing the restrictions on the land initially envisioned for that purpose.

"I can't see a problem with doing a feasibility study," said Wilcox.  But Councilman Bud Shattuck said that the $1500 that Pinney requested for color renderings was too much for an initial study.  "We've got past designs of golf courses, of streetscapes, town center projects laying around that we've invested money in," he said.  "I don't know if we need color for the first concept."

The board agreed, and approved the $1,000 that was also included in a bid for a black and white version.

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