Brunswick Planning Commission reviews plan for Brunswick City Schools' new athletic fields

BRUNSWICK — Brunswick Schools plans to move forward with putting various athletic fields on the site of the current Brunswick High School as part of its facility master plan. The district was in front of Brunswick Planning Commission on Thursday. Scott Alleman from ThenDesign Architecture said after the existing high school is demolished, the site will primarily be turned into the following athletic fields: Six new tennis courts with athletic lighting. Multipurpose synthetic turf field with athletic lighting, which will mainly be used for the marching band, but it will be sized and striped for other sports to practice on. Natural turf and clay baseball field for freshman baseball. Natural turf soccer field. There will also be 149 parking spaces for staff only on the east side of the site, Alleman said. "Staff will be segregated to the east side, and students will be able to park in that north lot and the center lot along with the overflow at the stadium lot," he said. Planning Commission Chairman Joe Shirilla said the commission does not have an issue with the fields, but it has concerns related to the parking lot due to a lack of landscaping and headlights potentially shining into nearby residences. "We have no intention of wanting to have our headlamps impede on anybody's homes. That's the last thing we want, and we want to be good neighbors in this," Superintendent Jason Niedermeyer said. "We had conversations about do we put a fence up that would be able to block all of that, and then we have a safety concern because we need to have sight lines." Planning commission approved the plan for the athletic fields and tabled the parking lot addition. The district was encouraged to find a path forward that addresses the planning commission's concerns regarding headlights and landscaping while keeping the area safe. "We have a landscaping code for a reason, not just to block light," Shirilla said. "We have it to enhance the beauty and the view of the property too, so we can't lose that. We can't get so focused on blocking light that we just stick this random stuff that that doesn't make any sense." The athletic fields are part of a $102 million project from Brunswick Schools, which is using local and state funding. To learn more, visit tinyurl.com/2xandkn4. Contact reporter Madisyn Woodring at (330) 721-4049 or mwoodring@medina-gazette.com.