Citizens denounce use of public land for private development
15th February 2016 · 0 Comments
By Della Hasselle
Contributing Writer
In recent months, the nonprofit sports organization Carrollton Booster Club and the Audubon Institute have come closer to a mutual goal: building a multi-million sports center, tentatively named the Benson & Brees Soccer Complex, on a swath of land by the river in Audubon Park.
The athletic complex is funded entirely by private donation from Louisiana-based companies like Iberia and Tabasco, New Orleans families such as Tom and Gayle Benson and Drew Brees’ family, and other philanthropic foundations, according to Audubon Institute board member John Payne.
The $4 million project is slated to include a multipurpose sports field, comprising one of the few pro-turf fields in the city, as well as other amenities, like a playground and concession stands.
If built, the Carrollton Booster Club would lease and manage the complex, marking the continuation of a longstanding relationship between the club and the Audubon Institute, which for 15 years now has allowed the organization to build and oversee sports fields on the property.
The proposed project has been lauded by some as another improvement to the park, thanks to coaches who have taught sports to thousands of the city’s kids and to an organization that has so far invested millions of dollars into Audubon’s green space for baseball and soccer.
But the new development, which would be built on a section of the park called “The Fly,” has also sparked debate in recent months about who should be allowed to use public spaces, and whether or not it’s appropriate to allow private management of public resources and recreation when limited space exists.
The proposal was put before the public eye in January, when the project’s architect Ace Torre brought the issue up before the city’s Neighborhood Conservation District Advisory Committee.
At the meeting, Torre told city officials that the new complex would sit upriver and alongside an existing baseball complex, also built and overseen by the Carrollton Booster Club.
Drawings submitted to city officials showed a 370-acre plan that included a walkway connecting the baseball area to the new soccer complex, which would be made with artificial turf and come complete with stadium lighting. The new sports field itself would be designed for soccer, lacrosse and flag football, according to those familiar with the project.
The plan is to unify the two fields with a new structure called the Jay Carisella Pavilion, which will include a new concession stand, an updated restroom facility, an office space and a new locker room.
The project, which will result in a $250,000 investment in landscaping around the new complex, will also feature a new playground and a tree-covered walkway that connects the playground, the pavilion and the current Carrollton baseball fields.
To build the structure, contractors would have to remove an old play area, some trees, a pockmarked driveway near the baseball area and an existing sculpture that had been erected in the midst of green space in the park.
It also required demolition of an old free-standing restroom facility thought to be built in the 1970s, Torre said, which is why the issue was brought up before the NCDAC in the first place.
At the meeting, Torre heralded the proposed construction, calling the demolition of the old bathroom “no big loss” to the park or the community that uses it.
“It’s non-ADA compliant,” he said to city officials. “It’s got everything going against it.”
Officials with the Audubon Nature Institute have applauded the project. Payne, who has worked on the project with the Carrollton Boosters, described the new complex as a natural next step in the two organizations’ longstanding relationship.
He pointed out that the boosters club had already poured between $7 million and $8 million in improvements to the park for kids’ sports.
In an email, Payne said the Sports Complex is the third phase of the master plan of the Fly, adding that the development of the Carrollton Booster Baseball Fields and Avenger Park were the first two phases.
The Carrollton Boosters club has vastly improved kids’ access to organized sports, Payne added, as last year approximately 4,200 families from all over the Greater New Orleans area participated in the club, and Carrollton granted about $22,000 in scholarships.
“This sports complex is an exciting addition to what Carrollton Boosters has already completed when they improved the baseball area, making it a really great park for kids to play in for years to come,” Payne said in a statement, adding that no kids were turned away because they couldn’t pay the fees.
J. Kelly Duncan, the Audubon’s Commission President, has also spoken in favor of the project, applauding the efforts of the Carrollton Boosters sports programs for underserved kids.
“This project provides more recreational space for children, particularly our underserved and handicapped youth,” Duncan said. “In this age of smartphones and computer screens, it’s especially important to create spaces outdoors where our children can exercise and learn to appreciate nature, and this project provides that.”
But in the past few weeks, critics against the proposed project have started to speak out in protest of what some call “creeping privatization” of the park, by leasing parts of it to an organization which requires paid membership for full access.
Signs posted around the current baseball field reinforce that notion, protesters say, specifying that use “of the fields and facilities contained within is restricted to club members, or with permission of, or in contract with, Carrollton Booster Club, Inc.”
Information posted on the Carrollton Booster Club’s website shows that registration fees cost upwards of $100 per child.
While Payne said the new fields and stands will be open for rent to other organizations, some still say they’re miffed by a sense of exclusivity surrounding the new project.
One opponent, Uptown Messenger columnist Owen Courregas, wrote an article earlier this month urging citizens to protest plans with city government and “save the Fly,” a park that is “a calming source of free and open recreation, of communing with nature with picturesque views of the Mississippi River.”
“While there is no doubt that sports facilities for kids are valuable in their own right, it’s unclear that an ever-increasing percentage of public park space should be taken up by sports fields with controlled access,” Courregas wrote. “It amounts to privatizing parks, and in this case the Carrollton Boosters are targeting a highly-prized and well-utilized plot.”
In a recent interview with The Louisiana Weekly, social worker Adrienne Petrosini agreed. She has recently joined a new, loosely organized group called “Save the Fly,” she said, which is dedicated to spreading information about the proposed sports complex in an effort to stop the project from being built on that particular swath of land.
Petrosini complained that The Fly was the only Uptown green space with an accessible view of the Mississippi River, where families of all races and backgrounds have gathered for decades to celebrate reunions, birthdays and holidays. Should the space be leased to the Carrollton Boosters, it would “limit opportunities” for those who aren’t interested in soccer, or who perhaps can’t afford to rent out the space, she said.
“It seems like it’s going to be an exclusive club instead of this green space where diverse people from New Orleans come to relax and watch the river,” Petrosini said. “All of a sudden it almost seems stealth to put these gates up. It seems wrong. And it seems like the loss of a public green space.”
Petrosini and other members of the organization, which first met by way of social media, have already met with the project’s organizers, and say they disagree about the plans put forth.
Teacher Cindy Mors, another member of the group, said she was trying to meet with as many neighborhood organizations and members of the media as possible, if for nothing else than to try and raise awareness.
She hoped that Audubon and Carrollton Booster officials would compromise, but said so far the group hasn’t had much luck.
“Audubon is unwilling to consider any kind of changes and they’re ready to build,” Mors said. “I don’t know if we have a chance, but we’re just trying to make as much noise as possible. I’m not sure we have any other recourse.”
In the meantime, city documents show planners behind the new sports complex are waiting for a demolition permit to be finalized before construction can start.
The demolition was approved by New Orleans City Council on Feb. 4. Should the project move forward after that, it’s expected to take nine months to complete, and could be built by the end of 2016.
This article originally published in the February 15, 2016 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.
