CITY PLANNERS still wonder why people who live around Derks Field fought so hard to have the new stadium in their neighborhood.
The new stadium will be big, noisy (although architects claim to be able to keep the sound down), and it will attract cars that will want to park in their front yards more than 70 nights each summer.And, although neighbors around the facility at 1300 South and West Temple have grown accustomed to 46-year-old Derks Field, they might be a little surprised when the new stadium is finished.
A stadium in a neighborhood?
"I don't think they were fully understanding what they were getting," City Planner Val John Halford said of area residents. "This is like trading in a high-school stadium for the Delta Center."
Real estate agents are a little confused, as well.
"I can't imagine anyone saying they want to move into the neighborhood because of the stadium," said David Read, owner of R House Realty. "I don't think it makes your house more valuable to have a stadium across the street. Most people are willing to drive a little ways to go to a game, but they'd just as soon drive a little ways to go home again, too."
In addition to forcing the demolition of seven houses and a business, the new stadium will bring in more people than Derks. It'll seat 12,000 and have room for 3,000 more on an outfield berm. Derks had an official capacity of 10,000, but some say it really wasn't that big.
Steve Pearson, former general manager of the Trappers and now director of marketing and promotions at Weber State University, said Derks could seat only 8,700, allowing for the normal standard of 18 inches per seat. But the stadium had benches, and people often scooted together to accommodate larger crowds.
Intangible costs
And, in their zeal to keep the stadium, residents were willing to sacrifice millions of dollars in government investments made in recent years to improve the neighborhood.
Among the houses to be leveled is one built by a group of 14- to 18-year-olds who were learning construction skills instead of gang warfare. A group called Neighborhood Housing Services used federal money and some money from a state grant to bring a donated house onto a vacant lot. The boys built a basement and made the house nice enough to sell.
Michelle Hutchins, assistant director of the Neighborhood Housing Services, said $28,200 in federal community block grant money was used to complete the project. She said the lot cost about $8,000 to $9,000, which was money from a state grant. The house was donated by Clines Motor Co.
The city spent $85,000 in federal funds to buy and move an old building on another site that had been used for Alcoholics Anonymous meetings. Neighbors had complained about the meetings, saying they attracted too many cars. Now that house, too, will be destroyed.
And the city recently invested thousands to repave a street and build curbs and gutters that will be torn apart.
In short, if city planners had their way, they would never deliberately put a 12,000-seat baseball stadium in the middle of a residential neighborhood.
No stadium, no neighborhood
The Derks neighborhood has for years been hovering near the edge of rapid decline. Home values hover in the low $40,000 range. The loss of seven houses and one business hardly will be felt. The city will lose only $1,838.84 per year in taxes, while the county will lose $1,220 and the Salt Lake School District $3,597.
A handful of families who have lived there for decades make up the neighborhood's core, but many of the residents are aging, and the future of their homes is uncertain.
All these factors may have contributed to the ferocity with which residents fought to keep the stadium. Most feared what the city might put in its place. They especially worried about subsidized, low-income housing that might further devalue their homes.
Cas Simonson, one resident, said she occasionally had to shoo away fans who wanted to park in her asphalt driveway. But while the city was considering abandoning Derks, she worried what it would do to her economically.
"Mom's upset. She thinks having Derks here will be the only way she can sell this house some day," she said.
Another neighbor, Emily Johnson, said the only inconvenience comes when friends visit and can't find a place to park because of the baseball fans' cars.
"But this has been going on for years. What harm does it do?"
Despite assurances from Mayor Deedee Corradini that middle-income housing would replace the stadium, the residents weren't satisfied.
"That area has a recent history of things moving out," said state Rep. Steve Barth, D-Salt Lake. "They needed something new to bolster their self-esteem."
Although his district doesn't include Derks, Barth was one of several politicians who scurried to the save-Derks bandwagon during last year's elections. He said his own nearby district also will prosper.
"The neighborhood as a whole will benefit from the stadium," he said. Building elsewhere "would have been the last straw in taking away the identity of the neighborhood."
The dollars made sense
The city's final decision to rebuild on the Derks site wasn't difficult to make. The city already owned most of the land, so the site was considerably cheaper than any of the others under consideration. It was the only site whereon a stadium could be built and finished in time for the Portland Beavers to begin playing in 1994, and the residents mustered enough political clout that county officials threatened not to help pay if the city built elsewhere.
By rebuilding at Derks, city officials note they are preserving a historic site that people along the Wasatch Front have learned to identify with baseball.
Residents note the stadium will represent an $18 million investment in their neighborhood, more than all the recent projects combined. The city isn't likely to let things fall apart around such a project.
"I think everyone is excited and looking forward to it," said Fae Nichols, chairwoman of the neighborhood community council, which fought to keep the stadium. "This has always been known as the Derks neighborhood."
Still, Nichols said she won't be surprised if some neighbors begin complaining after the first game. "There's always someone who will complain about noise. They say they want it, then when they get it they complain. That's human nature."
City planners originally said the stadium would destroy the neighborhood. Now, they are starting to feel differently.
"Nobody knows," said Halford. "I'm looking into a muddy crystal ball. We've already had to give up seven homes, but I think they've come up with a design that's first-class.
"And the berm is a nice touch. The sound will come up, hit the berm and bounce up."
Halford and other planners worried about parking, noise, lights and about businesses wanting to build near the stadium, ruining the quiet neighborhood.
"What we heard repeatedly from the residents is that it (the stadium) isn't that big of a concern," he said. "The safe bet would've been not to put it there, but that proved to be very unpopular."
*****
(Chart)
Derks neighborhood
Listed below is a demographic breakdown of the neighborhood surrounding Derks Field according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
General characteristics
Population 2,744
Median Age 32.7
People per household 2.31
Median Family Income $19,358
Median Household Income $15,448
Income Per Capita $8,382
Race
White 64%
Black 2%
American Indian 3%
Asian or Pacific Islander 4%
Other 11%
Hispanic orgin 16%*
Housing
Vacant Housing Units: 193
owner- or renter- occupied housing units: 1,062
Value and number of owner-occupied houses
Less than $20,000 12
$20,000-$39,999 141
$40,000-$59,999 195
$60,000-$79,999 33
$80,000-$99,000 2
$100,000-$149,000 1
$150,000 and Over 1
$300,000
*Hispanic refers to ethnic background, not race.
Percentages are rounded to nearest whole number.