Where will basketball courts and a skatepark go? Maybe a new park in Newport's North End

NEWPORT — The basketball court originally planned to accompany the new skatepark proposed at the Abbruzzi Sports Complex could be moving up the road to get around the stalemate over the relocation of the T-ball field.

And the skatepark might be going with it.

“Initially there was a lot of conversations about the ballpark, and it was tied into all of that,” said Maureen Cronin, chair of the Tree and Open Space Commission. "So, we just needed to take the basketball court out of the conversation and let it stand alone and find a location where it could be in the North End without having to deal with some of the issues around the Little League and skatepark.”

The City Council voted unanimously Wednesday to approve a revision of the original plans to install a basketball court at the Abbruzzi Sports Complex, shifting the location of the project to a parcel on the other side of the Community College of Rhode Island campus.

Since the plans for the basketball court have been tied to the proposed skatepark, both projects could potentially be constructed on this new piece of land.

"This indicates we can move forward in the fall with the construction of a basketball court and then we'll try to incorporate all of that at the same time to see where the skateboard park is," City Manager Joseph J. Nicholson Jr. told the City Council on Wednesday. "It's going to be an issue, for them, of design and spacing, and then see where they are and how they wish to move forward.

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"It's a package, ultimately, the basketball court and the skatepark."

City's 2017 Master Plan says more recreation facilities needed in North End

When Newport published its Tree, Park and Open Space Master Plan in 2017, it identified a lack of parks or recreation facilities in the North End and Broadway neighborhoods — despite the fact those areas housed more than half the children under 15 in the city — as an issue the city needed to address.

The Master Plan listed two basketball courts among possible amenities for the North End, as well as two soccer fields, a baseball field, one to two tennis courts and two to three playgrounds. This is the same section that recommended relocating the skatepark from its original spot at Easton’s Beach.

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“Residents identified a lot of needs and wants, and one of them was that the North End was underserved when it came to certain facilities,” Cronin said. “The basketball court was one they definitely wanted.”

The city applied for a grant from the state Department of Environmental Management to fund the construction of the basketball court in 2019 through the state Green Economy and Clean Water Bond approved by voters in 2018.

The original plan was to use the $100,000 grant to fund 80% of a new full-size basketball court at the Abbruzzi Sports Complex, which would be installed next to a new skatepark proposed for the property.

Time to use the grant money to build the new basketball court is of the essence

Despite identifying the T-ball park as underutilized in the grant proposal, the city received pushback from residents who argued against its relocation. Even after the skatepark’s construction and T-ball field’s relocation was approved by City Council in September 2021, a new location for the T-ball field has yet to be decided.

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Because of an amendment to the skatepark resolution from September, the skatepark and basketball court have to wait for the new T-ball field to be built before starting construction.

With the grant’s project completion deadline of December 2022 fast approaching and the discussion surrounding the Abbruzzi Sports Complex and the displacement of the T-ball park ongoing, the Tree and Open Space Commission and city staff decided to find a new location for the court, rather than lose the grant funding.

The new location sits just one block northeast of the sports complex, on the East side of the community college campus.

“They didn’t want to see (the basketball court) go away,” Cronin said.

The new park once was Navy property

Cronin said Nicholson helped identify a city-owned property to use for the basketball court: Plat 2 Plot 30, otherwise known as 0 Coddington Highway. The city received the property through a larger land acquisition from the U.S. Navy, which filed a quitclaim deed on the land in 2000.

In 2001, the city constructed John H. Chafee Boulevard through the middle of the property and split the 14 acre lot into three separate parcels, the largest of which is now home to Community College of Rhode Island campus.

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The parcel the city is eyeing for the basketball court was initially leased to BankNewport in 2006 to build a 75,000-square-foot bank headquarters, but that project stalled. The city terminated the 100-year lease in 2015.

Not much else has been established about the proposed basketball court, other than its new location. At 5.1 acres, the parcel is much larger than the proposed basketball court will be, and Cronin hopes the court’s location there will create more opportunities for parks and recreation development on that land in the future.

“At the present time, right now, there is no identifiable plans, but I know that the intent and hope is to create more recreational opportunities around it for that neighborhood and the kids,” Cronin said.

Skatepark backers approve of city's decision to create a new park

Michael Richards came forward to speak at the meeting approving the basketball court's relocation Wednesday, alongside Water Brothers surf and skate shop owner Sid Abbruzzi. The two represent Friends of Newport Skatepark, the organization working to get a new skatepark installed in the city.

They said they were encouraged by the city moving to dissolve the controversy around the skatepark's proposed location.

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"It sounds like you guys have found a great solution to take us out of the adversarial arena," Richards said. "We think this is an enormous step."

Unlike the basketball court, the skatepark will be funded privately through donations to Friends of the Newport Skatepark. Richards and Abbruzzi said once the city drafts a resolution designating a portion of the new land for the skatepark, they can start fundraising for its construction.

"We've been putting off the fundraising and telling people we don't have a location," Abbruzzi said. "I think we were just waiting for a place to say 'Future Home of the Newport Skatepark,' and the fundraising will start."

This article originally appeared on Newport Daily News: Newport RI: Abbruzzi Complex basketball courts find a new home