Lents Park ‘friends’ rally to oppose baseball stadium

Residents want to put nearly $42 million in urban renewal funds to other uses

The Portland Tribune, Jun 1, 2009, Updated Oct 30, 2009 (24 Reader comments)

A loose-knit group opposed to construction of a Triple-A baseball stadium at Lents Park meets Wednesday evening in the park to rally support and offer economic development alternatives for the neighborhood.

Friends of Lents Park plan to meet at 6 p.m. in the park’s gazebo near Southeast 92nd Avenue and Holgate Boulevard. About a dozen people formed the new group last week to oppose the proposed Portland Beavers baseball stadium and look for alternatives to spend nearly $42 million in urban renewal funds that could be used for the project.

“We decided that there had to be something better we could do with that money,” said Nick Christensen, a Lents resident and a member of the group. “We don’t just want to sit here and say we’re opposed to the ballpark. We want to offer something else that can be done with the urban renewal money.”

Portland’s City Council is considering an $88.78 million plan to remodel PGE Park for a Major League Soccer team that begins play in 2011, which requires moving the Portland Beavers Triple A baseball team either to the Rose Quarter where the Memorial Coliseum sits, or to Lents Park.

The proposed Beavers’ stadium there could cost about $47 million and would take up about 12 acres of the 38-acre park, mostly following the footprint of the park’s 53-year-old Walker Stadium.

Spending the money locally

Merritt Paulson, who owns the Portland Beavers and the Portland Timbers soccer team, proposed the plan early this year, and is waiting for city approval because some of the money for the new stadium and remodeling PGE Park would have to come from public funds.

City commissioners also are considering an ordinance to exempt the PGE Park/baseball stadium development from the traditional low-bid system, opting instead to hire one project manager to handle the complex development.

Early proposals to put the new baseball stadium on the Memorial Coliseum site met with a buzz saw of opposition, and Mayor Sam Adams dropped the idea in favor of putting the new stadium in Lents.

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