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Like an extra-innings game, it was a longer than usual Town Council meeting last week that put into play new concepts for historic Hedlin’s Ballfield.

During a Council Zoom session that pushed nearly three hours in length, members approved a plan to market the nearly two-acre site off Maple Avenue for $775,000, an asking price that offsets, with a slight surplus, the Town’s payment to the Hedlin family, even if a second one-year option payment on the property must be made.

Under terms endorsed at the marathon Feb. 23 meeting, 70 percent of the acreage would be platted for 10 single-family lots. The remaining 30 percent, about 24,000 square feet, would be preserved as a park area, a five percent increase over what had initially been proposed as public space.

While the property is marketed, Town officials will confer with La Conner Schools and the Swinomish Tribal Community to find an alternative local youth sports venue, both in the short-term should ground break at the ballfield before mid-June and to craft a long-range solution.

If the ballfield sells before April 15, the Town would be spared a second $37,500 option payment, which had emerged as a key discussion point.

Councilmembers Mary Wohleb, MaryLee Chamberlain, John Leaver and Jacques Brunisholz voted in favor of the new approach. Councilman Bill Stokes abstained.

“The Council has made a decision in regard to a path forward,” said Mayor Ramon Hayes, who acknowledged input provided by a citizen’s advisory group that emerged late in a more than year-long process.

“One highlight,” he stressed, “has been the value of the citizen’s committee.”

Hayes alluded to the group’s successful lobbying for increased park area and focus on single-family rather than multi-family lots as part of the Hedlin’s Ballfield plan.

The group, however, had also sought use of a second one-year option commitment on the property for additional planning time and a town hall-type public forum addressing the ballfield.

“We’re just asking for time,” said longtime La Conner resident and former planning commissioner Linda Talman. “We don’t have to sell it tonight. We don’t have to sell it next week. There’s time for us to discuss these things in ways that are cooperative and collaborative.”

“We can be creative on this space,” added resident Amanda McDade. “The process is difficult. There’s a lot to understand.”

Catey Ritchie, a primary spokesperson for the citizen’s advisory, said town halls and open houses are often invaluable when important issues are weighed.

“An open house would include visual aids and materials that explain the process, where we are in the process and how to get involved,” Ritchie said. “Not everyone has the time to pour through the (Town) Comprehensive Plan and really understand how it applies to a specific project.”

But with a second option payment deadline looming and mindful of a present favorable real estate market and full construction season ahead, Hayes said a Council consensus has favored marketing the property expeditiously.

“We would like to see it sold,” Brunisholz said, “before we have to pay the next thirty-seven thousand dollars.”

A letter in support of the Town’s mixed-use plan for Hedlin’s Ballfield, which in January was redesignated from public to residential use to comply with La Conner’s Comprehensive Plan, was submitted by La Conner Barber Shop owner Dick Holt – a resident here for nearly 50 years – and read into the record by Hayes.

Hayes briefly recounted the history of how the ballfield became available to the Town with the Hedlins offer to sell the property to the Town at a reduced price after having bought adjoining farmland for the family’s diversified agricultural business. According to Hayes, the Hedlins preferred the ballfield to remain in its present state. When the Town determined it could not afford to do so, a 75 percent residential and 25 percent public use plan was arrived upon.

Hayes has termed the compromise a “win-win” for all parties – the Hedlins would recoup their costs, the Town would recover its outlay for buying the ballfield while addressing La Conner’s housing crunch and a portion of the property would be retained for public use.

As for prospects of a future on-line town hall meeting, Hayes, Town Administrator Scott Thomas and new Town Planner Michael Davolio stopped short of saying that will happen.

They did say that opportunities for public input remain – for example, when plans to subdivide the ballfield property are presented and during Town Parks Commission reviews of proposals for the allotted public space.

“Maybe,” Hayes said, “that would be an opportunity for a workshop.”