The Recreation and Parks Commission is putting the Reynolds Playground redevelopment on pause while town officials investigate complicated ownership, drainage and easement issues involving nearby Lime Street.
Commissioners agreed Sept. 15 that it would be premature to advance the project further into design until they better understand infrastructure surrounding the site, particularly a drainage pipe and Lime Street, which is a private way.
“It doesn’t mean it’s not going to happen. It means it’s a pause, right? Pause and wait and see,” Recreation and Parks Vice Chair Shelly Bedrossian said. “We have to make sure our table is set properly before we move forward.”
The decision slows a project that had been gathering momentum this spring. In April, the commission unveiled a three-phase concept for Reynolds that included an outdoor ice rink and sports deck, parking, a turf field for softball and soccer and neighborhood improvements. The project is being funded by a $2.3 million bequest from Marblehead resident Larz Anderson that has since grown to about $3.3 million.
The first phase had been tentatively targeted for completion by winter 2026-27.
But Bedrossian said recent research into Lime Street and the infrastructure around Reynolds has raised questions that need to be answered first.
Lime Street is privately owned and maintained. Town officials have been exploring whether Marblehead could make it a public way, potentially allowing for improvements including sidewalks while addressing concerns about increased traffic around a new sports complex.
That work has uncovered decades-old questions involving property records, easements and underground infrastructure.
“It’s a quagmire,” Bedrossian said, adding that the commission needs to “pause, fix and address easements, all the things that are there, so we can have proper sidewalks and everything before we can move forward so we can do it right now and build on something that’s correct.”
Of particular concern is a pipe running beneath the area. Officials are trying to determine exactly where it runs, who owns it and who is responsible for maintaining it — questions that could directly affect drainage from a redeveloped Reynolds.
Bedrossian said DPW Director Amy McHugh, Town Engineer Maggie Wheeler and Planning and Community Development Director Brendan Callahan are working to sort through the issues. Some relevant records may not be digitized, complicating the research.
The Current has reached out to McHugh, Wheeler and Callahan.
The original proposal was shaped in large part by Anderson’s bequest, which was intended to support a public winter sports facility while benefiting other sports. The April concept included an outdoor sports deck about 85% the size of a regulation hockey rink, with a chilling system for winter ice and modular turf for soccer and lacrosse in warmer months.
Chair Karin Enrst said the town should exhaust its options for bringing hockey home to Marblehead before abandoning that part of the plan.
“From my perspective, mine only, hockey’s the only sport that doesn’t have a home in Marblehead, and this trust was designed and/or given with the idea to support that sport, and I would like to exhaust every option before we throw the towel and say we can’t do it,” Ernst said. But I think we need to pause.”
Commissioner Michael McCarthy also expressed frustration that Reynolds has gone years without significant improvements and discussed whether interim work might be needed if the larger project faces an extended delay.
Bedrossian said the commission remains committed to improving the property, even if the final plan changes.
“We all know as a group and a board and commission that Reynolds is a great opportunity for the town, to really just make that a playable, usable, self-sustaining entity,” she said.
For now, though, commissioners want answers before spending more money advancing the design.
