News of the Arroyo
Title: | Council debates Rose Bowl 's future |
Subtitle: | |
Date: | 2005-05-10 |
Summary: | May 10, 2005 - Pro-NFL faction clashes with preservationists - The NFL debate and the future of the Rose Bowl were center stage at the Monday Pasadena City Council meeting. |
Author: | Gary Scott, Staff Writer |
Publication: | Pasadena Star News |
Content: | Tuesday, May 10, 2005 - PASADENA -- Proponents and opponents of the proposal to bring a National Football League franchise to the Rose Bowl squared off Monday night, each trying to convince the City Council that their position would best serve to preserve the 83-year-old stadium. The council is considering whether to approve an environmental impact report measuring the likely impacts the project would have on the community. No decision is expected until next week at the earliest, but all observers agree the proposal\'s fate rests on the outcome of the vote. \"I think the council\'s decision not to certify the report would be a \'no\' decision on the NFL proposal,\' said Mayor Bill Bogaard, who is cool to pursuing a deal. About 190 people packed into the Pasadena Conference Center to hear the debate. Opponents, namely West Pasadena neighbors, preservationists and environmentalists, argued the potential downside of the deal congested streets, a crowded Arroyo Seco, loss of the stadium\'s historic status are just too great. \"I think we have enough information to understand this is not the right thing to do,\' said Susan Mossman, executive director of Pasadena Heritage. \"So why prolong the agony?\' The preservationist society has taken an aggressive stance against the project, warning the stadium will be ruined and lose its coveted place on the National Register of Historic Places. NFL proponents counter there are significant benefits to the city, in terms of business activity and jobs, that outweigh what they believe are tenable trade- offs. \"The economic benefits to the city are enormous,\' said businesswoman Marilyn Buchanan, a member of the Friends of the Rose Bowl. Failure to approve the EIR at this late stage, proponents added, would end the city\'s chances to negotiate a deal with the league an opportunity city officials have worked for four years to realize. \"It would be a shame if, at the end of all of this, that the council was unwilling to keep us in the game,\' said Councilman Chris Holden. There appear to be five council members leaning toward approving the EIR: Holden, Victor Gordo, Paul Little, Steve Madison and Joyce Streator. Five votes are needed to approve the EIR. \"I think if the EIR fails, the NFL takes us off the table,\' Gordo said. Decisions on design and control of the stadium will be worked out in the terms with the NFL, he added. \"The project that was measured in the EIR is an extreme,\' Gordo said. \"The design is not one I am prepared to support the NFL is welcome to build a strip mall stadium in Anaheim or Carson, or make one out of the Coliseum.\' The retrofit would cost somewhere between $400 million and $500 million, all of which will be paid by the league. The Rose Bowl redesign envisioned in the report makes substantial changes to the stadium inside and out. To begin with, the NFL wants to cut the number of seats from 92,000 to 65,000 to help ensure sellout crowds. New luxury suites would be added above the rim of the bowl, a second concourse would wrap around the midsection and a huge lounge would be built on the west side to serve the club seating ticket holders. More modern locker rooms, restrooms and concession space would be added, along with a 57,000-square-foot Hall of Fame museum and team store. To help mask the 820,000- square-feet of new building space, the architects envision using wood and rock in the construction and surround the stadium and parking lot with landscaping. According to the report, traffic would worsen at 38 intersections around the bowl; NFL games would double the number of days the golf course and Area H are closed to the public, and \"the modified bowl would convey neither the historic appearance of the Rose Bowl nor its design by Myron Hunt.\' To purists, like Mossman, the design looks like a bloated, deformed version of the low-slung bowl that has been an icon for Pasadena for 83 years. \"It will be this big, ugly piece of garbage in the Arroyo,\' she said. \"It is not going to be the Rose Bowl.\' Gary Scott can be reached at (626) 578-6300, Ext. 4458, or by e-mail at gary.scott@sgvn.com . |
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