City officials have approved site plans for Bartholomew Consolidated School Corp. projects at Columbus East, Southside and Parkside.
The Columbus Plan Commission approved site development plans for three BCSC projects:
On-site circulation changes for bus and parent drop-off and pick-up at Parkside Elementary
New lighting for the baseball and softball fields at Southside Elementary (which are used by Columbus North)
Renovations of the Columbus East High School varsity baseball and softball fields at Clifty Park
All three approvals came with certain conditions for BCSC, commission officials said.
Athletic upgrades
The school corporation’s plans for East include “renovating the Columbus East High School baseball field, including the addition of lights, the construction of a new high school softball field, also including the addition of lights, and a new bathroom, locker room, and concessions building serving both fields.”
The construction at both fields will include dugouts, bleachers, press boxes, netting and turf. The new softball field will completely replace an existing field at Clifty Park (which is just east of the high school and its football field). The new field will be reoriented to the east.
The property in question is used by BCSC but is actually owned by the Columbus Parks and Recreation Department.
“The actual softball diamond is park property, so it’s one of our baseball diamonds,” said Parks Director Mark Jones. “So we’ve been working with them. So this is going to be a great addition to what we’re trying to do.”
The school corporation’s request also included a waiver regarding height and cut off standards for its new lighting, which the commission granted as part of its site development plan approval.
Conditions for the approval included further documentation on the planned lighting, an elevation certificate for the concessions/restroom building, and a site plan that shows dimensions for new buildings.
At Southside, BCSC’s development plan centers solely on new lighting at the varsity baseball and softball fields, with the same waiver requested and approved.
Conditions for the site plan’s approval included further documentation on the planned lighting and examination of some existing landscaping at the site.
BCSC Director of Operations Brett Boezeman said that the addition of lights will remedy an existing problem with games ending early due to darkness.
“It’s not uncommon for a game to end after five innings,” he said.
Parkside
For Parkside, BCSC’s site development plan concerns circulation changes for bus and parent drop-off and pick-up.
“The school corporation proposes to relocate the bus drop-off and pick-up area from the south (front) of the school to the northwest, using an existing drive from Parkside Drive onto a new drive area for buses,” according to the request.
“The plan would also change the car rider drop-off and pick-up from the east side of the school to the south side of the school but will still use the drive and parking lot to the east of the school. A new drive between the east lot and the front lot would be installed to accommodate this new circulation path.”
The report noted that BCSC’s plans include constructing a new bus drop-off area and reconfiguring a parking lot.
“Our intent here is to make some site improvements, obviously, mainly for the safety of families and students … separating buses from people as best we can,” said Boezeman. “So right now, the buses load in on the south, which is the main entrance of Parkside Elementary. We have a lot of pedestrian traffic there, bicycle traffic, that sort of thing.”
There are also issues with congestion due to the current flow of car traffic, he added.
The commission’s approval for the Parkside site plan came with conditions in regards to landscaping. City-county planning director Jeff Bergman also suggested looking at a safety element near the southeast bicycle parking area and parent drop-off zone.
The circulation plan is part of a larger project centered on interior work at the elementary school, Boezeman said.
“The large majority of the inside of the building’s going to be renovated — brought out of 1950s, 1960s standards into 21st-century learning design that we want and that our kids deserve,” he said.
