BIDDEFORD — The University of New England may soon be getting another athletic field, as the university continues to ramp up its Athletics Department.

The Planning Board unanimously approved a conceptual site plan review for the university to construct a new multi-purpose turf athletic field in its meeting Wednesday.

UNE Assistant Vice President of Planning Alan Thibeault presented plans to the board on Wednesday. He said the university needed the Planning Board’s approval for construction because the field, while on the university’s existing master plan, is not situated in its originally-proposed location.

“This is a project that was on the master plan, intended to be a field house or another athletic facility,” Thibeault said, noting that traffic and light impacts would be the same for construction of either facility.

“We feel the impacts in this minor switch in locations … would be exactly the same as they are in the way it’s presented here,” he said.

The proposed field, a combination softball and field hockey practice and game space, would be situated within an existing recreational track behind Sokokis Hall, a university residence hall adjacent to the Harold Alfond Forum sports complex on Pool Street.

The Planning Board previously approved a $12 million, 36,000-square-foot expansion of the forum in September, a project that is currently underway.

Thibeault said the area of the proposed field has already been used for softball practices since the university’s development of a football program last fall.

The 100,000-square-foot field would also be retrofitted with low-grade turf to allow field hockey to be played on the surface. Previously, the field hockey team played on the university’s blue turf field, adjacent to the Harold Alfond Forum, but football has since displaced the team.

“Our goal is to have the new field up and running for the fall,” Thibeault said.

Thibeault said there are no restrooms planned for the field, due to its proximity to the Alfond Forum and the portable restrooms at the blue turf field. He said dugouts are not in the current plan, but likely will be included at some point.

Netting will surround the field to shield from fly balls, and the university will install spotlights to illuminate the field while minimizing impact on surrounding properties.

The Planning Board also approved the development of 168 parking spaces adjacent to the blue turf field and across from the Alfond Forum expansion.

“We felt with the opening of the expanded building and the football program coming on, it would make sense to put on the next phase of parking in that area,” Thibeault said.

That project would require removal of an existing turnaround next to the field and extension of the facility’s existing parking lot.

— Staff Writer Alan Bennett can be contacted at 282-1535, ext. 329 or  abennett@journaltribune.com