SALT LAKE CITY — After 30 years of being home to minor league baseball and the Salt Lake Bees, there's about to be a whole new ballgame as city leaders determine what to do with the 13 acres of land where Smith's Ballpark currently sits.
For Erika Carlsen, what happens next in the ballpark neighborhood is personal.
“My house is at the end of the stadium at the scoreboard, so it is my backyard,” she said. "Hearing the crack of the bat, it’s an emotional thing to think that baseball won’t be here, likely won’t be here."
It's been about 18 months ago since the Larry H. Miller Group announced the Bees would move out of the ballpark and play at a new stadium in Daybreak.
Since the announcement, the city has been working on Ballpark-Next: a project that will redefine the area. It started with a community design contest, input from neighbors and other stakeholders.
"The city's concentration on this and the effort that’s being put into, there’s a certain amount of excitement at what could be. But also nervousness about what might not happen,” admitted Ron Lay, owner of the Lucky 13 bar and restaurant.
“We want this development to not only bring the type of benefits that we're likely to see in the private market, but the human-centered. health-centered benefits like early childhood education, fresh food access, access to wealth building, possibly job training,” explained Salt Lake City Mayor Erin Mendenhall.
The city says it is negotiating with the University of Utah to extend its baseball team’s time at the ballpark, but they will have a non-exclusive contract so the space can be used for other events.
"Ballparks take a lot of space," said Lay. "They could have good event space that takes up a fraction of this, and still be able to do amazing things, outside space, farmers markets."
The next step is when a design firm presents three initial concepts.
"What would it look like if we were to preserve the ballpark, what would it look like if we could preserve a portion of the ballpark, and then what could a design framework look like if we propose complete removal of the stadium?” asked Marc Asnis, project manager, at Perkins & Will.
The Ballpark Action Team, or BAT, is hosting a community meeting to discuss future plans Thursday at 6 p.m. at the Urban Indian Center.
