Whitemarsh Park Master Plan Supported, With No Additional Fields to Come

The focus of Monday night's City Council Worksession was on the presented master plan to improve and revamp parts of the heavily used , which only has one entrance on southbound Route 301.

Matt Reno, Project Manager for the Department of Community Services gave a presentation of the master plan to the City Council, in coordination with Elisabeth Lardner, of Lardner/Klein Landscape Architects, the same consultants that recently put together the master plans for Allen Pond Park.

Whitemarsh Park is home to  as well as the Bowie Playhouse, and given the high volume of use, parking is always an issue. This was one of the main concerns with bringing in additional fields or activities to the park.

Another issue that was high on the list when putting together the new plan was the possibility of additional entrances to the park to help with traffic congestion getting in and out of the park.

The steering committee for this project looked at creating new entrances from the north and west of the park, but after consulting with the Maryland State Highway Administration and the City of Bowie Environmental Advisory Committee, ultimately decided the costs outweighed the benefits.

"It's a drill that involves crossing a deep stream. Some pretty significant environmental damages would be done; the cost environmentally would be high as well as economically, so we did our due diligence and said, 'No, that's not going to apply'," said Lardner in the meeting Monday evening.

The single-throat access caused the committees to decide that additional fields and programming were not feasible at the location, and would cause more management issues than create opportunities for the fields to be used.

Instead of investing in new fields at the location, the new master plan will strive to implement the following changes:

• Installing synthetic turf on the existing game field
• Expanding the field that at one time was a softball field to make it a full sized football/lacrosse field
• When they can find a new location for the now-lit baseball field that's currently in Whitemarsh Park, the space will be designated as an open grass, unlined, undesignated field area that could be used for practice or free play.
• Creating a pedestrian area between the soon-to-be open field and the game field that could house a pavilion, a new playground and year-round bathroom facilities.
• Additional parking spots to alleviate issues with all of the park's many uses, including patrons of Sport Fit

Leslie Wood Mummert, City of Bowie Environmental Advisory Committee member, was on the steering committee for the master plan's and spoke briefly at the meeting on Monday. She said that the committee had some initial concerns about deforestation and the environmental impact, but said, "The current plan really doesn't have a lot of forest clearing, so I think we're pretty comfortable with what was actually presented tonight."

Those involved in Bowie's lacrosse for both boys and girls were there, donning their orange Bowie Boys and Girls Club attire. Steve Kuciemba represented the boys program, and said that thanks to the efforts of the council, and the field maintenance being well managed, that he has seen explosive growth in boys lacrosse.

He says the lacrosse program supports the master plan, particularly installing artificial turf saying, "It will make Whitemarsh useful year-round instead of some of the fields, some of the time."

Andrew Karnes, who is in his fist year as the Girls Lacrosse Commissioner for the Bowie Boys and Girls Club, also said that they are a proponent of the new turf field as they have also seen substantial growth and interest this year.

As the league is currently set up, the girls practice and play most of their games in Anne Arundel County. There have been many instances that three teams are practicing on the same turf field because of availability shortfalls, which Karnes says the organization feels just doesn't seem right.

The BBGC Girls Lacrosse program is also going to be merging with another Prince George's County lacrosse program located in the College Park and Lewisdale area, as their program isn't viable.

In closing, Karnes pleaded that the new field to be usable for his program saying, "I beg you to please line it for girls lacrosse because we can host no girls lacrosse on our existing turf field, as it is not lined for girls lacrosse at all."

Col. Harlan Tucker of the Community Recreation Committee also said that they had identified three main needs for recreation in Bowie: additional lit football fields, additional lit lacrosse and soccer fields, and an additional gym. His concern is that neither the Whitemarsh Master Plan, or the Green Branch Park plan that was also presented Monday, addressed those issues.

He made the point that with volunteer coaches, many times they are not able to get home in time from work to make an evening practice that could be held in daylight hours, and stressed that, "lighted fields are the critical need for fall, spring, and summer sports. We urgently need the additional lighted fields to accommodate all the programs."

Despite the lack of new fields and lit playing surfaces, the plan has support from almost all involved parties. It is still not yet fully funded, but with the plan in place and the ball rolling, the park could open as early as fall of 2012.

The master plan and presentation can be viewed on the city's website.