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Select Board reviews 75% Portside Park design, approves multiple grant applications
Summary
Horsley Witten presented 75% designs for the Portside Community Park (187 Upper County Road). The plan includes a central green, porous basketball court, ADA looped path, bioretention and 35 parking spaces. The board authorized applications to SNEP and the Community Biodiversity grant programs and directed the team to proceed toward bidding for a possible October funding request.
The Select Board reviewed a 75% design for the Portside Community Park on June 16 and approved the project team’s request to submit multiple environmental grant applications to offset construction costs.
Design highlights: Horsley Witten presented a plan that converts the former church parking area at 187 Upper County Road into a community park featuring an open green, a porous basketball court, an accessible looped path, a picnic cove, native landscaping and three bioretention/infiltration basins to capture stormwater. The design includes a 35‑space parking lot with ADA parking and a gated entrance that can be closed at night; a concrete pad for a seasonal restroom is shown for short‑season use.
Schedule and funding: The consultant said construction documents will be advanced in July–August, public bidding would take place in September, and the project team will seek fall town meeting funding so construction could start in November and finish by May 2027, contingent on grant awards and town appropriation. The board voted to authorize applying to the Southeast New England Program (SNEP) implementation grant and to the Massachusetts Division of Fisheries & Wildlife Community Biodiversity grant (both motions passed unanimously).
Community input and conditions: Board members and residents raised concerns about placement of the basketball court relative to nearby rental properties; designers agreed to strengthen the evergreen planting buffer and noted porous court materials will attenuate some sound. Administration also noted proposed lighting will be limited to the parking area with downward‑directed fixtures to reduce light spill.
What’s next: With grant submissions authorized, the design team will finalize construction documents and return with bid results ahead of any funding article being placed on a town meeting warrant.
