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St. Pete To Weigh Rezoning Of Progress Energy Park

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By CARLOS MONCADA | The Tampa Tribune

Published: July 9, 2008

ST. PETERSBURG - The city council on Thursday will reconsider rezoning the site of Progress Energy Park as downtown parkland, which could impede – if not prevent – the Tampa Bay Rays from building a new stadium on the waterfront property.

Council member Jeff Danner plans to ask staff members to initiate the process for designating the 10-acre spring training site as parkland, a move supported by opponents of the Rays' plans to build a new ballpark there.

The Rays last month announced they were abandoning their push for a Nov. 4 referendum on a $450 million stadium on the site, also known as Al Lang Field.

A coalition of business and civic leaders will study and recommend alternative sites for a new stadium, a process that could take a year.

But Progress Energy Chairman Jeff Lyash, who will head the new group, has said he thinks the Al Lang site should be considered among other potential ballpark locations, to the dismay of stadium critics.

"I feel the waterfront should be taken off the table, and this is a good first step," said Hal Freedman, president of Preserve Our Wallets and Waterfront, which opposes a downtown waterfront stadium.

However, ballpark supporters said the city should delay action on rezoning Al Lang until the baseball coalition completes its work.

"If all sites are to be considered for a new stadium to keep the Rays in St. Petersburg long-term, then the waterfront site should be one of them," reads an e-mail that Fans for Waterfront Stadium sent to its members this week.

The e-mail states that Danner's measure "would eliminate the possibility of a waterfront stadium ever being built on that site."

Danner disagreed, saying a ballpark larger than 7,227-seat Al Lang Field still could be built on the site with variances or a rezoning.

"It's not anti-stadium," Danner said. "It just puts a designation on the site that the people have wanted for the last few years."

The issue of preserving Al Lang as parkland first came up in August, when the council overhauled its land development regulations. At the time, city staff members advised against it, saying they wanted to keep their options open because the Rays would be vacating the site when they moved spring games to Port Charlotte in 2009.

As it turned out, city staff had been discussing the Rays' stadium proposal in secret since at least March 2007 under a confidentiality agreement. In November, news broke of the Rays' plans to build an open-air, 34,000-seat ballpark at Al Lang Field and to redevelop the 86-acre Tropicana Field site.

In February, council members decided not to include Al Lang Field in a "glitch" ordinance amending the new land regulations. Instead, the council opted on a "visioning" process to seek public feedback on alternative uses for Al Lang, including a public park.

Reporter Carlos Moncada can be reached at (727) 451-2333 or cmoncada@tampatrib.com.

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