Beavers baseball at Lents Park? Plan is hit and miss with neighbors

Call it like you see it at Thursday's meeting or online

By Jason Vondersmith

The Portland Tribune, Aug 18, 2008, Updated Oct 30, 2009 (18 Reader comments)

LUCAS JACKSON / THE PORTLAND TRIBUNE

Walker Stadium, the home for various levels of amateur baseball for years, would be replaced by a new stadium under a plan being developed by Portland Beavers owner Merritt Paulson and city Commissioner Randy Leonard.

Randall and Julie Devine stand in a driveway on Southeast 88th Avenue, staring across the street at Lents Park and where there might some day be the new home of the Triple-A Portland Beavers.

Owner Merritt Paulson wants to attract a Major League Soccer franchise to play in PGE Park and build an 8,000-10,000-seat baseball stadium at Lents Park for about $35 million, to relocate the Portland Beavers. He has the early support of city Commissioner Randy Leonard.

"I hate it, and I love baseball," Randall Devine says. "It's going to be a joke with the traffic. My main concern is the bottleneck that would develop when (fans) leave. But I could see it fitting there."

His wife disagrees on the major point: Is putting a stadium in the middle of Lents Park a good idea?

"It'd be exciting to have it here," Julie Devine says. "The MAX will run right by it, two blocks away. The biggest concern is traffic on this street (88th). And they'll have to use the whole park (for the baseball stadium)."

Well, actually the new ballpark – an idea which could go before the city Council in October; it's in the preliminary planning stages – would be built where delapidated Walker Stadium now sits, with new parking spots put on the south end of the park, in addition to exisiting parking on the east end, parallel with Southeast 92nd Avenue. Even with a new ballpark, other existing fields would be left in place – the Lents Little League, which has been relocated to the park, would keep its fields and have an office in the stadium – and the rest of the spacious south end of Lents Park would not be disturbed.

The layout where Walker Stadium now sits would be rotated 180 degrees. The field would be lower than ground level, with stands extending high.

NEIGHBORS SOUND OFF

On Sunday, the Lents Founders Day Celebration brought residents to the park – and opinions were mixed on the idea of a Beavers ballpark in their backyard.

"It'd be nice. It'd bring a lot of business to this part of the neighborhood," says Thomas Graham, who lives on the fringes of Lents neighborhood, on Southeast Powell Boulevard. "The only problem you would have is it would get rid of a lot of functions here. This is one of the nicer parks in Portland. But (officials) would probably look at the money (making) part, rather than the inconvenience."

Brent Kush lives on S.E. 122nd and Holgate. "It's a pretty good idea," he says. "They'd have to double-up the parking, and some trees would have to come down."

Matthew Kieger, who lives two blocks from Lents Park, attended Sunday's events with his boy. Not knowing about the ballpark idea, he weighed in:

"I like it the way it is. The neighborhood has really cleaned up. It needs to stay a family park. (A ballpark) would be too big, and the neighborhood couldn't sustain it. Would you come all the way from Beaverton? Traffic already sucks."

Cora Potter, a neighborhood activist, says that with MAX coming through the neighborhood in the near future, a ballpark would be an economic boost to the area, "if it's done right. They have to pay special attention to the use of the park, the adult leagues and the neighbors. And it'd be an issue if the parking lot looked like a parking lot" and not integrated into the park setting.

She adds: "They shouldn't be so gung-ho that they overlook the details."

Rebecca Stavenjord, sitting on her bicycle, a mile from home, likes the idea of pedaling on two wheels to the ballpark. She, too, wants everything to be planned out – "as long as all the agencies work together on it."

Nancy Kelly and her two grandsons watched the Founders Day parade, then walked north through the park toward Walker Stadium. All the area they covered would be basically left untouched, according to preliminary plans.

"It would be fun – but I don't want to lose the park," says Kelly, who lives two blocks from the park. "And there'd be a lot of traffic. As long as the whole thing (park) wouldn't be taken up – I like the trees."

Says her grandson, Nathan Thomas White, 11: "It's peaceful here. But, they could tear down Walker Stadium and leave the rest open space."

One Founders Day attendee voiced concern about too much park space taken away.

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