Youngsville OKs plan for complex
YOUNGSVILLE — The City Council on Wednesday night unanimously approved a master plan for the Youngsville Sports Complex, a 70-acre multi-use recreational facility to be built near Sugar Mill Pond.
Voters last year approved a 1-cent sales tax to pay for the facility, which will be located on donated land just south of Sugar Mill Pond and west of downtown Youngsville.
The master plan details a two-phase build-out expected to cost more than $14 million.
The first phase will include five baseball fields, six soccer fields, four softball and T-ball fields, 10 tennis courts, a collection of covered pavilions, a fishing dock overlooking a 3.4-acre retention/fishing pond, a one-mile asphalt jogging trail, and parking spots.
The second phase will include a 43,900-square-foot multi-purpose recreation center with basketball courts, an indoor jogging track and an aerobics room.
“I think it’s very ambitious,” Mayor Wilson Viator said before the meeting. “I think it’s going to be first class.”
Dax Douet, an engineer with C.H. Fenstermaker & Associates, and architect Mark Lalande presented the master plan to a group of more than 50 residents during a special meeting held at the Ascension Episcopal School gym.
Construction could begin in late 2012 and the fields could be ready to use by late 2013, Douet said.
A major design element in the park will involve positioning five baseball fields in a pinwheel format. Concession stands will sit in the center of the pinwheel and an upstairs observation deck will overlook all five fields, Douet said.
The park’s six soccer fields can also be divided to make a possible 12 fields, he said.
“We are trying to make this a truly multiuse facility,” Douet said.
When complete, the park will boast about 1,800 potential parking spots to accommodate crowds during state tournaments, he said.
Before the presentation, the council also unanimously approved a resolution to bond the project. Viator said the city can bond $15 million over the next two years.
Before the meeting, Sherlyn Larrison, a Youngsville resident, was impressed by the large renditions of the master plan.
“It’s better than I ever dreamed it would be,” Larrison said. “I’m just so impressed by the quality of this proposal.”
The 1-cent sales tax is expected to bring in about $1.5 million a year, and will bring the city’s total sales tax rate to 9.5 percent.
Residents in nearby Broussard also passed a half-cent sales tax in November to build and maintain recreation facilities. Both cities have populations of about 8,100 residents and are expected to continue growing.