There’s plenty of place to play baseball in Cottage Grove, but the sport of lacrosse is all the rage these days.

The city Parks and Recreation department forwarded to the City Council for review at its Jan. 6 meeting a Memorandum of Understanding between the city and Independent School District #833 that calls for the development of lacrosse fields.

The City Council approved an updated Oltman Middle School Park Master Plan in late November. Because the park is on Cottage Grove School District property, both government entities have to ratify the agreement. As part of it, the school requested a Memorandum of Understanding stating mainly that the city will pay to develop the recreational facilities.

“The City of Cottage Grove is responsible for constructing the recreational facilities on Independent School District #833 property located west of the Oltman Middle School campus as identified in the park master plan,” the Memorandum of Understanding states.

“The City shall be responsible for maintenance of the athletic fields and supporting amenities to a level consistent with other such recreational facilities in the community,” the agreement states. “The School District shall have priority usage of the fields when needed for their purposes.”

Land at Oltman was initially set aside for ball diamonds, according to a memo to the City Council from Parks and Recreation Director Zac Dockter.

“Since that time, there has been a shift in field need prioritization for youth athletic programming,” Dockter wrote. “With the addition of two ball diamonds at Oltman Middle School (opening spring of 2021) and two ball diamonds at Hamlet Park (opening spring of 2022), the City has ample capacity to shift the Oltman Master Plan.”

That shift will be to lacrosse, but the fields can be used for other sports as well.

The revised plan calls for three full-sized multi-use rectangular fields, bringing the count of rectangular fields at Oltman to five. There will also be benches, netting, a practice wall and scoreboards specific to lacrosse.

Plans also call for a building with a picnic awning, restrooms and storage. There will be a small playground in the park.

Building the park hasn’t received a spot on the city’s fiveyear Capital Improvements Plan, but the preliminary approvals get it in line so staff and the city council can keep the project moving and look for funding.

“The proposed Oltman Master Plan focuses on servicing the needs of lacrosse; the fastest-growing youth sport in our community,” Dockter wrote. “However, flat rectangular turf fields can also be multi-use for other activities such as soccer, ultimate Frisbee, football, general recreation and events. Currently, lacrosse is the only youth sport without a dedicated multi-field facility for practices, games and tournaments.”

Cottage Grove Area Lacrosse and the Park High School Lacrosse staff have given input on the plan. Cottage Grove Area Lacrosse offers programs for kids of all ages, and Park High School offers lacrosse as a team sport.