Opposition to the Rays ballpark grows
May 23, 2008 at 1:55 pm by Wayne Garcia
On the upside, the Rays haven’t trotted out a phalanx of lobbyists and spinmeisters in the team’s effort to win public approval for a new $450 million waterfront ballpark. They get brownie points for that. On the downside, for them at least, they are getting creamed so far.
Last night, nearly 600 people — mostly opponents — showed up to a public forum in St. Petersburg to speak about the proposal. This came after a workshop session of the City Council at which even some of the council members who seemed open to the idea initially — mainly Jamie Bennett — are starting to get testy with the ball team.
Also this week, preservationists weighed in on the plan with a big negatory, good buddy. This from St. Petersburg Preservation:
Over the years significant portions of our open Waterfront Park land have been lost as buildings and parking areas were allowed to encroach into the Waterfront Park. While these encroachments were for uses perceived at the time to benefit the public, cumulatively they have significantly eroded our downtown waterfront open green space. The construction of the proposed stadium would constitute the largest encroachment on the Waterfront Park. It also sets a negative precedent for perhaps even larger projects at some future date.
… The mass and scale of the proposed waterfront stadium is far beyond what may be reasonably accommodated at the Waterfront Park site. The scale of the project is such that it would overpower and interfere with other nearby historic park amenities and residential areas. … We recommend the Rays Owners consider alternative sites, or further enhance the current stadium.
