Ground will be broken this afternoon for what Harford County Parks and Recreation officials are calling the first regional athletic facility in the county.
Centrally located in Harford, the new Cedar Lane sports facility in Bel Air encompasses more than 100 acres of land and will have one 90-foot baseball diamond and 13 full-size, multipurpose playing fields.
County officials, as well as lobbyists for the complex, are hoping Cedar Lane park will be where all future recreational council championships are played.
“Most facilities [in Harford] are geared toward the needs of the local recreation councils,” said Arden McClune, chief of capital planning and development for Harford County Parks and Recreation. The Cedar Lane facility will cater more to the travel and club teams in Harford, while also providing much-needed space for recreation councils that are without, McClune said.
McClune said the park will cost just less than $2 million and will open in 2008. About $1.3 million of the cost has been funded through the state?s Program Open Space, while the remainder is being paid for through Park and Recreation?s capital projects budget, McClune said.
The complex will be able to host soccer, field hockey, football and lacrosse ? essentially any sport that requires a field of 70 by 120 feet, said Harford recreation specialist Rob Bailey, who has been overseeing the project.
“The motivation for the project came from the community,” said Bailey, referring to the Cedar Lane Sports Foundation, which approached Parks and Rec four years ago, purposing the complex.
“The athletic infrastructure was not keeping up with the population,” said Cedar Lane Sports Foundation President Phil Tirabassi. Tirabassi, a former resident of Bel Air who has stayed with the project even after moving to Towson, said that his group knew something needed to be done after some councils had to cancel certain sports for a lack of space.
Tirabassi said future plans for the complex include lighting and special artificial turf fields.
“In the future, we hope to host the county recreational championships,” Tirabassi said.
