A proposed new road that would run through a football booster club’s field faces Gorham Planning Board scrutiny next week.

The access road, linking Main Street with Gray Road, would be built in the first phase in developing the town’s 85-acre Chick Property site, where the public safety building is located. The site is also adjacent to the Narragansett Elementary School. A site master plan calls for future additional playing fields.

To pay for road construction and a storm water runoff pond, the town could use about $1 million in unused money from a bond referendum approved by Gorham voters five years ago to renovate the former Shaw Junior High School into Gorham Municipal Center.

“I think voters should weigh in,” Town Councilor Noah Miner said Tuesday about funding for the proposed access road.

Language of the referendum question in 2005 provided that money unused by the project could be utilized for addressing needs at the Public Safety Building, the Chick Property and the former Little Falls School, now leased to Sebago Educational Alliance.

The road would dissect the present playing field used by the Gorham Grizzlies, a middle school football team sponsored by Gorham Football Boosters. The booster club has maintained the field and leases it from the town.

The Junior Grizzlies, along with high school junior varsity and freshman teams, also play at the boosters’ field. Booster club leaders couldn’t be reached for comment by the American Journal deadline Wednesday.

But Gorham Recreation Director Cindy Hazelton said all teams would have a field.

“Everybody gets to play this year,” Hazelton said Wednesday.

In the event the access road is built and takes away the present football field at the Chick Property, Hazelton said Gorham Grizzlies, the team for football players in grades 7 and 8, would practice and probably play at a new field at the Gorham Middle School, and the Junior Grizzlies, for players in grades 4, 5 and 6, would practice and play at a soccer field at Narragansett School. But where the high school freshman and junior varsity teams would play is still under discussion.

Mike Phinney, chairman of the Town Council, said Tuesday the intent is for the football program to play at another field on the Chick Property while the present field is unusable. Phinney said about one half of the present field would be “lopped off” by the access road, but the intent is to extend the field toward the Narragansett School.

The Planning Board will consider the town’s request for Phase 1, which includes the access road, at 7 p.m. on Monday, April 5, at Gorham Municipal Center, 75 South St.

Stephen Bushey, an engineer with DeLuca-Hoffman Associates, Inc., in South Portland, which will develop bid specifications, said Tuesday the 24-foot-wide, paved road would be 1,800 feet in length.

Phase 1 would also include constructing two parking lots with 103 spaces. The pond is required for the town to be in site compliance with the Maine Department of Environmental Protection.

A site master plan updated in 2008 calls for several athletic fields to be built. Future fields at Chick Property would include one for baseball and one softball field along with five multi-purpose fields with one combination baseball and multi-purpose field. Building additional fields is not included in the first phase.

Phase 1 will require final approval by the Town Council.

Miner was the lone dissenting vote in a Town Council measure approved 5-1 (Phil Csoros absent) in January to authorize development of bid specifications and solicit bids for Phase 1. Miner advocated sidewalks be built along the access road for pedestrians in the nearby neighborhood to access the site.

“I was opposed because we were moving it along quickly,” Miner said about the Town Council vote in January.

Town Manager David Cole this week didn’t expect bids to be solicited before May.

Phinney said bids would be sought following Planning Board approval of the first phase and accepting a bid would require Town Council approval.

“We’re hoping to get good prices” because of the economy, Phinney said.

The first phase of the project would eliminate an existing parking lot at the Public Safety Building and would require moving a football field snack shack. Phinney said construction of the stormwater runoff pond would cause the gazebo, where summer concerts are held, to be relocated on the lawn at the Public Safety Building.

The access road would be connected to the Public Safety Building and, Phinney, said the road would allow emergency vehicles access to Gray Road without having to “fight traffic” on Main Street.

“It should help response times,” Phinney said.

Gorham planners Monday will see plans for an access road, depicted on left, running to Gray Road from Main Street in this concept plan for the Chick Property. The road will knock out an existing football field where Gorham Grizzlies play.

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