Baseball's in, Water Park's Probably Out

To judge by the two articles in the AZ Republic today, Big League Dreams could be open and running by April 2007, but the water park/ice skating rink at Crossroads Park isn't likely to get off the ground. Here's the gist of the article on the Crossroads project:

A new traffic signal and turn lane would be needed if a proposed ice rink and water park open at Cottonwood Crossing, a town-order traffic study states.

But to Town Engineer Bruce Ward, parking is the bigger concern.

And some of the nearby residents make no bones about their feelings:

"I know we've been called NIMBYs . . . but I don't mind saying that I don't want this thing in my . . . back yard," Godinez said of the water park.

Big League Dreams (I've called it Field of Dreams in the past, and that is incorrect, so I'm trying to get it right now), on the other hand, has let two contracts to get started, according to this article:

Gilbert has made two key hires for its $22.7 million Big League Dreams sports complex project.

Without discussion, the Town Council on Tuesday voted 7-0 to hire M.A. Mortenson Co. and Phoenix-based Kitchell CEM on design-build contracts totaling $2.5 million.

Mortenson, a Minneapolis firm, will provide pre-construction services, and Kitchell CEM will cover project management.

The project is the concept of Big League Dreams USA LLC, which enters public-private partnerships with communities to build sports complexes with scaled-down facades of Major League ballparks. The Chino Hills, Calif., company was appointed to convert a 63-acre parcel on Elliot Road into one of its theme multi-use fields for sports tournaments and other events.

This project is located right next to Highland Groves, and should be a nice use of that space. The Mister has met with the initiators of the project to make sure they know of our desires for integrated landscaping and an attractive transition from Highland Groves to Big League Dreams. They seem amenable to working with us on that, because they also want a nice looking project. We have high hopes for the way it will all turn out.