Princeton Council Presses For More Detail On Community Park South Plan

PRINCETON, NJ — A scaled-back plan to rebuild Community Park South would cost an estimated $18.8 million, down from $35 million for the original design. But several Princeton council members said they need much more detail before they can sign off on the next step.

Consultants from Bowman Consulting presented the reduced plan to the mayor and council on Monday. They asked for direction to finish construction documents for two phases of work and prepare a single bid package covering both.

Officials stressed that the request does not commit the town to building the project.

“Tonight is not to firmly commit to any part of the build and capital expenditure, but to wrap up the contract with Bowman,” Council President Michelle Pirone Lambors said at the start of the presentation. She added that council would then need to look at fundraising options and fit the project into its capital budget priorities.

Under the alternate plan, the project would be split into two phases instead of three:

• Phase 1 ($10.7 million): New tennis courts, a tennis pavilion, pickleball courts, two platform tennis courts, a practice wall, a main pavilion with public restrooms, and new drinking fountains and limited fencing at the existing dog runs

• Phase 2 ($8.1 million): Baseball and soccer field improvements

Each phase also includes about $3.75 million in general site work, such as grading, paving, electrical, utilities, landscaping and erosion control, according to Bowman’s estimate.

To bring costs down, the plan drops a maintenance building, a parking lot and some shade structures from Phase 1, and baseball and soccer field pavilions from Phase 2. The original Phase 3, which included dog run improvements, volleyball courts, a playground, a splash pad and shade structures, was eliminated entirely.

The number of platform tennis courts was cut from four to two, though the design leaves room to expand to four later, according to Jaryd Moran of Bowman.

The plan would install electrical infrastructure for lighting across the park but only put up lights at six of the 12 tennis courts, four of the eight pickleball courts, one baseball field, one soccer field and both platform tennis courts.

The $18.8 million figure includes overhead and 10 percent escalation for 2026 and 2027, but it does not include construction administration or construction management, Moran said. The estimates are still preliminary.

Officials described a park that has needed major upgrades for years.

Andrew Koontz, chair of the Board of Recreation Commissioners, said the tennis courts are at or past the end of their life, and the pickleball courts are painted onto the same worn surface. The platform tennis facility is in disrepair, the park has no public restrooms, and the soccer and softball fields drain poorly, he said.

The main fields are currently lit with portable light stands powered by diesel generators, he said.

“In short, the park needs for us to take action now,” Koontz said.

The Recreation Commission recommended putting the pavilion and restrooms in Phase 1 and moving the athletic fields up from Phase 3 to Phase 2. Because Phase 1 work would disrupt a softball field and a soccer field, the commission also recommended starting Phase 2 as soon as possible after Phase 1 begins.

Councilmember Mia Sacks used the meeting to clear up questions she said she received from the press about the $35 million figure, which appeared next to the words “council-approved concept plan” in the presentation.

She said council approved the concept design in 2025, but no cost was attached at the time. Bowman confirmed the $35 million estimate was calculated afterward.

“I think we’ve learned a lesson that when we look at a concept plan, we should have a cost and a price tag attached to it at the time,” she said.

Several council members said the presentation did not give them enough information to approve moving forward.

Mayor Mark Freda said he understood the park needs work, pointing to tennis courts that “are toast.” But he said he believed the project started at around $20 million to $22 million before rising to $35 million. He was disappointed that about $7.5 million in general site work was presented without further detail, he said.

“It’s hard for me to sit here and say, ‘Yeah, go ahead,’ because I don’t know what ‘go ahead’ means,” he said.

Moran of Bowman said the firm has a detailed estimate with about 700 line items behind the numbers and can share it with council.

Sacks said she has felt the proposals keep shifting and bundling items together.

“We’re not really sure what all is in there, and somehow we have to subscribe to the whole thing in order to get the essentials,” she said.

She asked for “a menu of the cost for every single item,” and said she fielded calls all afternoon about the project.

Parents and residents involved in organized sports told her the field conditions have become intolerable and unsafe, she said. She also heard concerns about how much the engineering work under the fields is driving up costs. If field work there is too expensive, she said, the town might consider building fields on other public properties it is evaluating.

Other callers worried that the park would be taken away from the Witherspoon-Jackson neighborhood, she said.

“It is also the backyard for a neighborhood in which people don’t have large backyards,” she said.

Executive Director of Recreation Evan Moorhead acknowledged that leaving out the detailed figures was “a miss on our part,” and said the information would be provided.

Recreation officials said the plan keeps space for unstructured play. Moorhead said a large field in the center of the park would not be striped for any sport and would stay open for anyone to use.

Moorhead said no current uses would be eliminated. The fields would remain natural grass, not artificial turf, and any striping would be paint that fades, he said.

“We’re not fencing in the soccer area,” he said. “This is grass.”

He also said the walking path around the park would stay mostly where it is now. The picnic pavilion would move closer to the parking lot to make it easier to reach for people with mobility challenges, and the new restrooms would be built there, he said.

Councilmember David Cohen offered several ideas to cut costs. He suggested keeping and repainting the existing tennis pavilion, running electricity to the fields and continuing to use movable light stands, and reconsidering irrigation. He also suggested bidding “nice to have” items as alternates that could be funded through private donations.

“If you want this, you got to pony up,” he said.

Cohen said the existing tennis building, a cinder block structure, does not meet code for use as an office because it lacks a restroom. He said all of Princeton’s other parks with athletic fields — Farmview, Smoyer, Hilltop, Grover and Greenway — have irrigation, and Community Park South is the only one without it. He said staff is open to suggestions for bid alternates.

Councilmember Brian McDonald called it “an outstanding plan,” and questioned whether it could realistically be broken into separate pieces, given how much shared site work it includes. Moran said that would be difficult, since each combination would need its own estimate.

McDonald added that the $18.8 million would likely reach about $21 million once construction administration, management and planning costs are included, and that costs would rise further if construction does not begin next year.

Council decided to allow the Finance Committee to meet and discuss next steps before coming to a decision. They asked the consultants to put together a more detailed proposal which they hope to see during the Nov. 23 meeting.

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