D.C. Official Backs Off On Stadium Near Mall

[newyawker99]

D.C. Council member Jack Evans yesterday abandoned for now legislation that would have directed the city to acquire land, hire a developer and make other preparations for building a baseball stadium near the Mall, saying the plan had generated "too much of an uproar."

Evans (D-Ward 2) said he was inundated over the Memorial Day weekend by telephone calls and e-mails from city residents opposed to the legislation, which would have elevated the site, known as the Banneker Overlook, over three other locations the city has proposed to Major League Baseball as potential homes for the financially struggling Montreal Expos.

The legislation also would have linked the stadium to Mayor Anthony A. Williams's $8 billion campaign to revitalize the long-neglected Anacostia waterfront, creating the possibility that profits from waterfront development could be used to pay for stadium construction.

"People in Southwest believed we were about to build a baseball stadium on Banneker tomorrow and that we were about to use all the money from the to do it. It isn't true. But there's nothing that we could have done today that would have dissuaded people," Evans said. "Consequently, it just didn't make any sense" to offer the legislation.

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A7954-2004Jun1.html