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Land swap kick-starts playing fields

By Matthew Artz Daily Planet Staff
Saturday November 16, 2002

A deal struck to publicly acquire a swath of private Berkeley waterfront property could be a home run for local playing field advocates and environmentalists. 

East Bay Regional Park District officials confirmed this week that they have agreed to purchase roughly 16 acres of paved land just south of Gilman Street from Magna Entertainment Corporation, a Canadian firm which owns Golden Gate Fields racetrack. 

While EBRPD officials refused to divulge the purchase price, believed to be between $5 million and $10 million, or speculate on future uses for the site, city officials hope it will eventually house five athletic fields currently slated for Albany. 

“We’re on the right track,” said Mayor–elect Tom Bates. “I think we’re going to get some great playing fields [here] in Berkeley in the next couple of years.” 

The purchase is seen as the key ingredient to a compromise brokered between environmentalists and playing field advocates, who have fought over space at the planned Eastshore State Park. 

Playing field supporters say a shortage of local facilities has cost hundreds of Berkeley kids the chance to play organized sports. Environmentalists say the current plan to put fields on a stretch of Albany coastline, called the Albany Plateau, would interfere with local wildlife and destroy irreplaceable habitat. 

Last month the two sides agreed to move the fields from Albany to Berkeley if the Magna site could be purchased. 

“This is a very positive development. It will be great for the park and great for the kids,” said Robert Cheasty, president of Citizens for an Eastshore State Park, an environmental group. 

Doug Fielding, president of the Association of Sports Field Users was more cautious about the impending sale, noting that it was still to be determined whether the park district would be amenable to ball fields on its land. 

The pending sale is not expected to yield new playing fields in the immediate future. 

The deal must still be approved by the park district’s board of directors at a meeting next week, said Nancy Wenninger, EBRPD Acquisition Manager. Environmental studies of the land and a mandatory public planning process could keep the land undeveloped for more than a year, she said. 

Bates acknowledged that switching the fields from Albany to Berkeley would take some work, but said he expected that the issues could be resolved. 

“It’s just a matter of working out and slashing through the problems. I think its all solvable and doable,” he said. 

The pending sale is welcome news for playing field advocates who were thrown a curve ball last week by the California Department of Parks and Recreation, which owns the planned Eastshore State Park. 

Previously the state was willing to own sports fields as long as the fields were built and managed by an outside agency. 

At Tuesday’s City Council meeting, council members were worried that the new stipulation could add to the expenses for getting new fields. 

But Roy Stearns, CDPR spokesperson insisted the state park position would actually help facilitate ballfields at the Albany Plateau, if the deal for the Berkeley land falls through. 

Because state parks is prohibited from using bond money to fund exclusively local purposes such as ballfields, Stearns explained that transferring ownership of the land to a consortium of local cities, would allow the cities to collect more state money to build the fields. 

“We’re not abandoning anyone. This is just a better opportunity for the locals to succeed,” he said. 

The purchase leaves the future for a segment of Berkeley’s northern waterfront in flux.  

Magna has planned a hotel and shopping development on part of the site, which has concerned environmentalists who believe that Magna’s land not used by the racetrack should be purchased and incorporated into the park. 

In November Berkeley voters passed a measure allowing city officials to change the zoning at the site to restrict Magna’s ability to build a large development. 

Magna officials refused to comment on sale of the 16–acre parcel or their intentions for the remainder of their property.