Groton ― A community pool with a splash pad, athletic fields, a pavilion and bicycle paths are some of the highest priority items that residents would like to see on the former Claude Chester School property.

Residents, in a public workshop and on an online survey, also identified public restrooms, streetscape improvements, native plantings, and the removal of the existing school building, as top priorities for uses on the property which is located off Route 1 adjacent to Poquonnock Plains Park, said Parks and Recreation Director Mark Berry. They identified a playground, event space and public art as other wishes but listed them as less important items.

Mystic-based Kent + Frost Landscape Architecture is working on conceptual plans for the property. Claude Chester was one of the three elementary schools that were shuttered at the end of the 2020-21 school year as part of the Groton 2020 plan to consolidate and improve school buildings.

Berry said Kent + Frost is trying to see which recommended items fit and which don’t fit the site and then will present a plan to the Town Council, likely in January.

The council last month authorized the Parks & Recreation and Planning departments to have Kent + Frost develop plans for the Claude Chester property re-use study based on the workshop and surveys, said Town Manager John Burt.

According to the council’s resolution, Kent + Frost will present the conceptual plans to the council and public for feedback. It will then develop a master plan and cost estimates for the property.

Berry said Kent + Frost also will look at nearby properties, such as the Groton Community Center, to see if proposed items could potentially fit there.

Berry said it’s very early in the process so the uses of the property, how it would be funded, and the timeline for development will be determined in the future.

Chad Frost, a principal in Kent + Frost and a landscape architect, explained that a concept plan is a spacial organization of how things could lay out and, in almost all cases, what is ultimately built is modified from that initial concept.

The town is paying Kent + Frost $40,700 for the feasibility study for the re-use of the Claude Chester site and a master plan for the greater Poquonnock Bridge area.

k.drelich@theday.com