A decision on whether to put a soccer/softball field on undeveloped land along Morton Street at the old Boston State Hospital property is headed to yet another overtime.

After nearly two years of discussion, and almost five months of back and forth at State Hospital Community Advisory Committee (CAC) meetings, Brooke Charter School, Lena Park New Boston, and many neighbors and elected officials thought they finally had come to a vote on the matter at a CAC meeting last Wednesday.

Instead, vice chair Donn Dingle moved to hold off for another month any vote so that the panel could consider more fully new information sent to them prior to the meeting. Votes “next month” had also been promised at previous meetings.

“I’m advocating for tonight,” said state Rep. Russell Holmes. “I think you have enough information to have a vote tonight. I would hope we can get this done tonight…They’ve done everything you asked of them.”

Dingle responded: “I guess I apologize about taking so long, but if we’re setting a precedent, let it be one of seriousness.”

That led to a testy exchange between Holmes, Brooke COO Mark Loring, Dingle, and several neighbors.

“It’s not semantics here, Henry James or ‘The Real Thing,’” said Dingle about his position favoring another delay.

“I’m flabbergasted,” said neighbor Gloria Riley. “I feel Mr. Dingle has taken us back.”

With that, and time running short at the meeting, the one-hour discussion on the issue was tabled until the next meeting, a scenario, field advocates said, has already played out multiple times.

“Every time the CAC has asked us to do something, we have done it with vigor and speed,” said Loring at the meeting. “At this point we feel like we’ve addressed all the questions that have been asked…We’re getting to the point that this project is taking us longer than it took to build our entire high school.”

The CAC is voting on a change of use for Lena Park New Boston’s portion of development on the massive former State Hospital site, which has been going through a public land disposition process now for about 30 years. Originally, Lena had been approved to build an urban farm on the site, but that fell out of favor. In 2019, Lena approached Brooke to see if they would like to develop open space next to its campus on American Legion Highway instead. In dire need of a field for athletics, Loring said they began to plan for the purchase, building, and maintaining a soccer/softball field at a price of about $4 million.

Loring told the Reporter that many of the high school’s 500 students would benefit from such a field, as would the larger community. He said if the field is not being used by the Brooke teams, or rented out to another school/organization, it is open for use by anyone in the surrounding neighborhood. First and foremost, he said, they would like to get more opportunities for their students and the constant delays have made the process confusing and frustrating.

“Our hope is to get it up by next spring so that our seniors next year could enjoy the prospect of having a home game and a field,” he said. “You only get one high school experience. We have two years of seniors now who never got to play a home game since we started this.”

In fairness, the process did start with concerns voiced by neighbors, including abutters in a nearby development. Aalana Feaster of the Harvard Commons Neighborhood Association (HCNA) pointed out that HCNA had voted against the field two times. While she was the only one at the last week’s meeting speaking against the proposal, she was not alone in that sentiment, she said.

Loring, however, described the opposition as a “singular voice” that will only be happy if the project fails, while other skeptical neighbors have changed their mind after several recent meetings and some tweaks to security and the parking (there is none now) situations.

Annaise Foureau, a neighbor who is also a member of Boston’s Zoning Commission, said that many neighbors, including abutter Denise Sonnie, are now in favor of the field. “It is concerning we have one or a percentage of that number that are holding up a process that takes years and years and years,” she said. “This serves the children of Mattapan. I do hope this gets a solution because this is getting embarrassing.”