Carmel Envisions a New & Improved McDonough Park

By Rob Sample

Will Carmel knock one out of the proverbial park and give town residents a revamped – and baseball-centric – Jimmy McDonough Park? That was one of the key topics discussed by the Carmel Town Board at its June 10 work session meeting.

The proposed redesign would be both ambitious and expensive and would likely require approval via a public referendum. Should it proceed, construction would begin late next year. Because the project is still in the early stages, no final price tag has been established, but estimates have pegged its cost at $14 million.

The recent presentation focused on the work of BBS Architects, which has been involved in this proposed project since 2008. In October 2023, the town board gave BBS the green light to update the 2008 master plan for the park.

“As part of this we established a McDonough Park master plan committee that included community stakeholders such as residents and user groups like MSA Baseball and some of the skate park users,” said Nina Kallmeyer, director of recreation and parks. “These groups provided valuable feedback and helped develop a vision for the park.”

The committee met multiple times and BBS presented the updated plan along with a cost estimate in April 2024.

“Earlier this year, we convened with BBS and town board members to review the proposed master plan and offer feedback on the site amenities, phasing, and costs,” continued Kallmeyer. “It turned out to be a great plan – that would be a good amount of money for the community – so we did want to look at that and see what we thought would be realistic. That’s why we’re here tonight.”

There are two underutilized multipurpose fields at the rear of the park. Under the proposal, the right rear field would become a dedicated baseball field while a portion of the left would continue to function as a multipurpose sports field and playground. The BBS plan also would add paved parking and visitor shelters.

“We looked at different things in the park that weren’t working and that were working,” said Curt Coronato, a landscape architect for BBS. “A lot of the fields were underutilized… maybe because parking is so far away from them and there weren’t (ADA) accessible ways to get there.”

Coronato said the youth baseball field was deemed too close to the McDonough parking lot, particularly the spectator benches.

The next step is to present the proposal to the parks advisory committee, which is shepherding the proposed improvements at McDonough Park as well as at other town parks.

In addition, the proposal takes aim at another longstanding complaint about the existing baseball field: its southwest orientation.

“It’s facing the wrong direction for baseball,” said Coronato. “So, for afternoon or evening games, you’re getting the sunset in your eyes. We would put it in the right orientation, facing northeast, and put a parking area and access to that area. I think that’s probably the biggest change to the park that we’re recommending.”

Town Councilman Robert Kearns noted that in previous discussions with BBS, the upper left field was to be a dedicated softball field, not one for multiple sports uses. “My vision was not to have a multipurpose field there,” he said. “Our intentions are, we want to bring Little League to the Town of Carmel.”

The town is home to Mahopac Sports Association Youth Baseball, which is not affiliated with the international Little League association. Little League has a variety of requirements that local groups must follow, which include baseball field specifications. The revamped and relocated field would conform to those specs.

The board engaged in a lengthy discussion of whether – and where – to use artificial turf versus grass for the playing fields. While artificial turf has advantages such as enabling an earlier start during spring, it comes with a much higher price tag. Ultimately, the board decided it would study a mix of grass and artificial turf and weigh the respective cost savings to the $14 million price tag.

In addition, several board members suggested it might be best to proceed in phases, with a focus first on the park’s northern end. That phase of the project would cost approximately $5 million.

Revamping McDonough’s skate park would be another costly element. Given the popularity of this area, the consensus was that the skate park is vital.

“When I’m at T-ball with my daughter – and all the time at the park – there are people constantly in that skate park even at the state it is right now,” said Kallmeyer. “You see kids come off of the T-ball field, grab their scooters, and go scooting on the different equipment.”

Kallmeyer presented several slides showing the proposed redesign of the skate park with a variety of poured concrete structures, as envisioned by Spohn Ranch, a Los Angeles firm that specializes in such endeavors. The redesigned skate park would cost about $788,000.

“It took a lot of time to come up with these designs,” she said. “We think it would be very aesthetically pleasing.”

Kearns suggested that an “all-in” approach – tackling the entire park project in one initiative – would be a best approach because phased projects tend to get delayed or stopped outright.

“If there’s no issues – knock on wood – I think 18 months is a very reasonable schedule to get this this whole project completed,” he said.