clarinews@clarinet.com (KEVIN G. HALL) (02/04/90)
BALTIMORE (UPI) -- More than 300 people crowded a city library Saturday to hear a special panel tell of tentative proposals that call for razing Memorial Stadium after a new facility is built to nest the Baltimore Orioles. The Stadium Redevelopment Task Force presented several options, and various alternatives within those options, for developing the stadium site and nearby Eastern High School. The Orioles will use Memorial Stadium until a new stadium is built at Camden Yard, scheduled to open with the first pitch of the 1992 baseball season. Mayor Kurt Schmoke tapped the panel to decide what will become of the current stadium after the move is made. ``There appear to be limited opportunities for good use of a 50,000-seat stadium,'' said Rachel Edds, assistant director of the city's Department of Planning. ``It is very likely that the stadium will be demolished.'' Edds said residents attending the two back-to-back hearings Saturday at the Waverly branch of the Enoch Pratt Library generally agreed the stadium, built in memory of war veterans, would have to be torn down. However, some suggested keeping the memorial portion of the stadium intact. Among the alternatives being considered are a campus-style arrangement in which housing, educational, research or business facilities would be constructed. Another proposal calls for a wide boulevard flanked by larger buildings along 33rd street where the stadium is now located. A third idea calls for extending the street grid into the 55-acre Memorial Stadium-Eastern High sites, with homes lining the streets. Edds says after presenting the several tentative proposals, residents chimed in with their ideas and concerns, ranging from creating more open space to preserving the character of the neighborhood and preventing over-development. ``I think we got a lot of useful reaction to different types of plans,'' Edds said. She added the panel -- made up of community representatives, local business people and Johns Hopkins University officials -- will consider the suggestions raised during the hearings before returning to the community in spring with a draft plan before presenting a final recommendation to the mayor.