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WEIMAR — The City of Weimar and architectural designer Burditt Land | Place shared plans and welcomed community feedback for the future baseball and soccer sports complex in a town hall, Monday, Aug. 3.
The event featured posters of the conceptual master plan for Yoder Park, the designs for the first phase of the project and a slideshow of digitally rendered concepts of the park’s final appearance.
The master plan outlines three baseball fields, two soccer fields, two playgrounds, trails, a concession stand, restrooms and around 400 parking spaces. The park is located to the right of North East Street between County Road 202 and East Converse Street.
Project Manager Claudia Walker said the strengths of the plan are the trees and its parking lot design.
“The way we organized everything was to try to preserve as much of the existing canopy… because it’s really the only shade that’s there,” Walker said. “(The organization) creates the exit-entrance flow for large crowds to easily flow through the property.”
The three new baseball fields will be located on the northwest corner of the park and form almost a complete circle. A plaza, one playground and large pavilion with lawn space will create a community hub at the center where the three fields join.
The two soccer fields will be located on the southwest corner of the park and will incorporate one preexisting field. The soccer fields will likely be real grass, not turf.
The parking lot will cover the majority of the east portion of the park with entrances both on County Road 202 and East Converse Street. The East Converse Street entrance will intersect with North Smith Street. Additional parking will line East Converse Street until its dead end.
The southeast corner will include a second, smaller pavilion, the second playground and two pickleball courts. The second playground will be an upgraded version of the current one.
A 0.6-mile walking trail will circle the park and connect to trails in Hill Memorial Park and the Weimar Golf Club. Workout stations will be placed along the trail as well.
Phase 1 focuses on the three baseball fields, its accompanying plaza, batting cages, and about a third of the planned parking lot, specifically 97 spaces.
Each field will have three sets of bleachers under shade structures along the backstop and on each side before the dugouts.
A concessions building will host the concessions stand, restrooms, a changing room, a flexible- use room, two storage rooms, and custodial and mechanical closets.
The women’s restroom will have three water closets and two sinks. The men’s restroom will have two urinals, a water closet and two sinks. A family restroom with a changing table is also planned.
Community members primari ly marked up the master plan. Notable comments included expanding the planned restrooms, placing water stations along the trail and possibly adding a dog or skate park in the northeast corner.
“We’ve being hoping since that day, and it’s been coming along,” said Ken Yoder, who donated the land for the complex. “We’ve been thinking about it, making plans, just trying to get something off the ground and just never could get it going, so this is exciting.”
Walker said the plan would not make any more major changes, such as relocating or rearranging the buildings and fields, but additions or changes to amenities would be considered.
“We have several amenities already in there, and we did agitate all of that information from previous studies and other meetings,” Walker said. “…The dog park and the skate park, those are things that didn’t come up, but if they are something that the community has desired and hasn’t spoken, then we would like to hear it.”
Walker went on to say the progress of the project after the designs are finalized is largely up to funding. Despite an initial $2 million anonymous donation, Phase 1 is not yet fully funded. The city is pursuing grants and seeking donations.
In October 2025, before the plans were more comprehensive, the project was estimated to cost $4 million.
“Let’s say there’s a specific grant that comes… then the efforts would be put into (that),” Walker said. “That’s why we have the master plans to make sure that everything is in place if something does come up to allow for (something specific) to be constructed.”
