New Berkley park will feature botanical gardens, a walking path, playground and more

BERKLEY — The one-time site of a fairgrounds and a race track on Myricks Street may soon come alive again with the Historical Commission's proposal to restore it into St. Yves Memorial Park.

At a selectmen meeting on Sept. 28 seeking authorization to move forward with the preliminary design, Historical Commissioner Andrea Perry said the plan is to transform 10.2 acres of the Myricks Street parcel into a park with a softball field, a multi-purpose field for sports and events, a walking path, botanical gardens and a playground with state-of-the-art equipment.

The late Marge Ghilarducci started it all when she approached politicians to give the town money to compensate the town for the negative impact of South Coast Rail.

The result was a $200,000 MBTA grant specifically earmarked to renovate the park site.

The commission, Perry explained, may also be able to place a stage there for future concerts, plays and programs. 

"A kiosk will be constructed showing the history of this park and recognition of SouthCoast Railway funding the project," she said.

"The land was given to the town many years ago by the St. Yves family. SouthCoast Railway and the MBTA gifted the town with the $200,000 because of the loss of a field next to the tracks that children used to play on and homes taken by eminent domain."

Amazing view of Taunton river:This contemporary ranch in Berkley was sold twice in six months

She told the select board on Sept. 28 that the Berkley Athletic Association is in favor of this plan, and the commission intends to establish a Friends of St. Yves Park to oversee the park's creation.

The board was quick to authorize the commission to proceed with the next step, which is to send the approved preliminary plan to Zenith Consulting Engineers for the final plan that will be used for construction in spring 2023. 

Upcoming special Town Meeting

The selectmen's second most important move Wednesday night was to approve the warrant for the Nov. 14 special Town Meeting, which will features a vote to allow Freetown to join the Bristol-Plymouth Regional Vocational Technical School and a re-visit of the zoning bylaw changes rejected at the spring Annual Town Meeting.

What do you think of this group?:Taunton-area officials with ties to 'alt-lite' group say they are not members

Selectman Wendy Cochran noted the advantage of Freetown's joining B-P is that, according to her conversation with the superintendent, Berkley's assessment for the B-P new building project will go down from $20 million before Freetown to around $17 million with Freetown in the assessment mix.

Finance committee chair Joseph Freitas countered, "We have to be very careful throwing numbers around like that that could be wrong."

The zoning changes, which included tweaks to home occupation regulations and a new flood zone overlay district, were tabled in June after multiple amendments to the new bylaw's language were proposed in the course of the planning panel's attorney Marc Bobrowski's presentation of the bylaw updates.