The St. Joseph Township Board of Trustees has scheduled a public hearing for more discussion about the possible acquisition of property for a proposed youth sports park at Maiden Lane and Hollywood Road.
We reported back in December the board postponed a decision on the potential donation of land from Hanson Properties for the project organized by the St. Joseph Youth Sports Foundation so trustees could have more time to study the implications. Township Supervisor Roger Seely now tells us trustees have scheduled a public hearing for March 2 at 6:15 p.m. to talk about the land near Hanson International’s building on Hollywood.
“There’s 40 acres behind that and alongside the building, and that’s the planned park to be some baseball fields, softball fields, flag football fields, but we have to get it off the ground,” Seely said. “So they want to donate the property to us. We have to get a grant to come up with some money to work through these things.”
The township board will consider applying for a Michigan Department of Natural Resources grant to cover expenses related to the possible land acquisition.
The terms of the donation from Hanson Properties stipulate that the township would be responsible for maintaining the property, that the property could only be used as a park, and that it would be named “Hanson Community Sports Park,” or something similar. The arrangement also would have transferred the land to the Berrien Community Foundation before the BCF hands it off to the township.
The matter will be further explored at the March 2 hearing.
