Printer Friendly Version - New Option Could Put Bocce Courts Next to Old Saybrook Town Hall

Could this be the site of new public bocce courts? If the Zoning Commission agrees, seven of these paved parking spaces on the Town Hall campus would be removed and bocce courts built in their place. A new parking row striping plan would replace the lost overflow parking spaces elsewhere on the site. Photo by Becky Coffey/Harbor News

Now that pickleball players have secured their Main Street courts—concrete will be poured this week—the town’s bocce players are concerned that they have no place to play. They’ve appealed to First Selectman Carl Fortuna, Jr., to find a place for bocce courts, and he has developed a plan that could give them one.

To succeed, though, the Zoning Commission (ZC) first needs to approve a requested modification to the town permit that allowed renovation of the former Town Hall into the Katharine Hepburn Cultural Arts Center on Main Street.

When the theater project asked for ZC clearance, the commission questioned whether the site plan had enough parking spaces to meet the town’s standards for the new use. This issue almost derailed the project. To address the issue, the town had to find more parking spaces and to meet the zoning regulations, those spaces had to be on the Town Hall campus site—parking spaces along Main Street could not be counted towards the parking space requirements.

The solution was to pave the area to the south of Town Hall and stripe the area with about 20 or more overflow parking spaces. The two parking rows designated for this purpose now surround the outdoor basketball court on two sides.

Despite the requirement to meet the town’s zoning regulations with on-site parking, since The Kate opened, the two paved rows of parking that abut the south end of Town Hall and the rear edge of the Town Green have never been used by theater patrons. Even when The Kate’s seats are sold out, patrons choose to park along Main Street and in the Town Hall lot instead. The walking distance is shorter than it would be from the overflow parking area.

Two years ago, theater patrons got a third option: New, off-street public parking spaces across the street in the Main Street Connection Park. Even when The Kate’s seats are sold out, this lot has not been more than one-third full. Based on the town’s zoning rules, these spaces cannot be counted as available for the theater’s users.

This parking issue potentially could have presented an obstacle to Fortuna’s plan to build bocce courts. Working with Town Engineer Geoff Jacobsen, however, Fortuna found a solution: restripe the overflow parking spaces so that the seven spaces lost due to bocce court construction could be recaptured elsewhere on the site.

In October, the town as result will apply to the ZC for approval for a minor modification to the zoning permit to allow a new parking space striping plan in the overflow area. If approved, in the place of seven parking spaces next to the Town Green and south of Town Hall, two bocce courts could be built.

If the ZC approves the change, the town will by next year gain both three pickleball courts and two new bocce courts in the center of town.

This architect’s rendering shows where two bocce courts could fit in an area now used for parking at the Old Saybrook Town Hall campus. Image courtesy of the Town of Old Saybrook