Yale To Replace Old Tennis Courts With Grass Parking

So long, tennis courts that haven’t been used in years.

Hello, a new grassy plot for sports-related parking.

That planned change will result from a vote taken Wednesday night at the latest monthly meeting of the City Plan Commission.

At the meeting, land-use commissioners unanimously signed off on Yale University’s plans to get rid of five fenced-in clay tennis courts on Yale Avenue near Derby Avenue at the heart of the university’s athletic complex in Westville.

Yale Lead Planner Jeromy Powers told the commissioners that those courts — atop a roughly one-acre site that straddles the New Haven-West Haven border — have not been used for years.

The university instead plans to remove the existing chain link fence, remove and break up the clay tennis court portion of the site, and fill that portion in with soil and grass.

“The parcel will predominately be used as a grass field area,” Powers said.

It will also be used for overflow parking during ​“high volume” sporting events, like Yale home football games at the nearby Yale Bowl.

“Use of the new grassed area for parking for high volume events, such as Yale University home football games, will be limited to coaching, event management and other staff who arrive approximately 4 hours prior to the start of the event and leave approximately 2 hours after the conclusion of the event,” Powers wrote in the university’s site plan and coastal site plan application. ​“Once all such staff are parked in the lot, the gate will be closed and there will be no further vehicle access to or from the lot until two hours after the conclusion of the event.”

Powers also said that the fill to be used to replace the current tennis courts is excess material generated by the ongoing construction of a new fieldhouse between Reese Field and Central Avenue.

“It was originally anticipated that all of that fill would be reused in the creation of a new grass playing field on the site of the former Armory building at 40 Central Avenue, but more material than expected was generated,” the application reads. ​“Given the proximity of the clay courts, the distance to be traveled on public streets by trucks transporting the material will be minimal.”

And he said that the university is also filing a zoning application with the relevant West Haven board for the portion of the project located across the city border.

Powers estimated that the construction project will begin this summer and be completed by the end of 2021.