The Big Story: Redeveloping the Trop
January 10, 2008 at 10:33 am by Wayne Garcia 
The writing on these signs was the sentiment of many of the 330 people who turned out for a snoozerific three hours last night to discuss what could become of Tropicana Field in St. Pete IF, (SHOULD, MAYBE, PERHAPS, LET”S JUST SPECULATE) the Rays score a new ballpark on the waterfront. (I only echo the general tone of city and Rays officials statements to the crowd last night as they tried to head off growing skepticism of residents who think things are moving too fast.)
The Times characterized the three-hour urban planning session this way:
For the most part, people were cautious about replacing Tropicana Field, which opened in 1990. But many were at least open to the idea.
The Tribune’s take was inaccurately titled “Public Debates Dome’s Fate.” Let’s be clear; the exercise held by the city last night allowed for no “debate” and was carefully structured to both quiet angry residents who really want to express their opposition to the waterfront ballpark idea and to placate the daily newspaper neighborhood activists who were upset at the lack of public input into the Trop redevelopment plan. This kind of “consensus” exercise may look good on paper and satisfy those with MA’s in urban planning but provides little real public input to elected officials and — more importantly — makes for really dullllllll news stories. And beyond that, there is nothing to debate yet: No finances are on the table beyond a $450 million price tag for the new ballpark. The Rays aren’t saying yet what public $$$ they want, beyond a request for $60 million from the Legislature that they already dropped in the face of no support at all from the local legislative delegation.
The Trib story’s nut graf was only slightly less off the mark than the headline:
By the end of the 2 1/2 hour meeting, the crowd reached a consensus on three types of land uses: residential development with affordable housing, retail services and cultural and entertainment uses.
Uhhh, not so much. That may be what the exercise’s facilitators came up with at the end, but it doesn’t reflect what I heard and saw. Actually, as I wandered from table to table, I saw more redevelopment-option lists that featured such things as “Leave As Is,” “Rebuild on same site” and “baseball stadium new.” Other popular choices for the Trop’s future included recreation, green space, entertainment and affordable housing. Interesting (if not fiscally possible) options were and R&D park and a convention center/hotel site. When housing was listed, it was either identified as “affordable” or “moderate.” Those groups that wrote down retail almost always had the word “limited” next to it.
Clearly, there was little enthusiasm for the kind of high-intensity redevelopment that would be necessary to make a Trop-for-waterfront-ballpark swap financially possible, the kind of urban village envisioned (in the rendering on the right) by the Rays and their chosen redveloper, The Hines Co. of Houston.
“The project is not nearly a finished product,” Rays point-man for the deal, Mike Kalt, told the crowd. “There’s a lot of opportunity to develop this site ….”
He’s right; that kind of acreage in an urban area in Florida is gold. But redeveloping it in a way that will spin off enough profit to finance the new ballpark and bring real change to downtown St. Pete seems to be something that local residents aren’t warmed up to — at least just yet.
