championship park is dead
We got our $40 million back.
By the time Plant City Mayor Rick Lott presented the proposal for Jim Norman’s giant sports complex at 10:30 a.m. today, it was clear that there was not anywhere near enough political support to pass the project, so Lott fell back to Plan B. Admitting that there were too many unanswered questions, he said he could not ask other elected officials to vote for the project at this time, so he asked, instead, for them to form another task force to study the project some more.
His move was anticipated by the dozen citizens who spoke against the project before his presentation. Each one, while presenting many intelligent arguments against the project, also asked the commissioners to stop spending our money on studying this project and vote it down today so we could release the $40 million for other things this county needs.
Only two citizens spoke in favor of Championship Park, one of whom admitted to a vested interest as owner of 400 acres nearby which he would like to develop.
All the commissioners made long speeches, but I liked the citizen comments best. Limited to 3 minutes each they were articulate, intelligent and passionate. The transcript should be online tomorrow, if you want to see what everyone had to say. In a nutshell: everyone likes kids and sports, but thinks this is the wrong project in the wrong place at the wrong time—well, everyone but the guy who wants to develop nearby, some other guy, and Jim Norman, who expressed his deep disappointment with his fellow commissioners who left him flapping in the breeze on this one (see the transcript tomorrow).
By the end of the discussion, 6 of the 7 county commissioners had indicated they would not support Championship Park in an up or down vote today. So commission chair Jim Norman passed the gavel to vice-chair Ken Hagan, in order to make a motion to follow Rick Lott’s Plan B, which came with a recommended list of people (stuffed with supporters) for a new Task Force to continue studying the idea, thus keeping Norman’s pet project alive, and keeping our $40 million locked up. (Keep in mind we’ve already spent some $300,000 studying this over two years.)
The motion died for lack of a second.
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October 3rd, 2007 at 3:22 pm
GOOD!
October 3rd, 2007 at 3:38 pm
Jim Norman is quoted in the Trib (TBO.com article) as saying, “The Kids lost today.”
I maintain the idea that Norman is misdirecting the public when he tries to say that lack of fields for kids is a problem in the county and this sprawlpark (and that’s what the real name of Championship Park is) was going to remedy the problem.
Even if this is tied to out of town teams playing tournaments in Hillsborough County — there are already sport venues available in close proximity to one another that would cover this.
SO if the county needs land for the kids parks — start buying neighborhood land up and start building neighborhood fields that kids can use instead of sprawlparks in the middle of no where that will boost development opportunities and serve no one but those developers financial interests.
October 3rd, 2007 at 3:57 pm
What goes around comes around and today he had it coming. After trying to kill the EPC and then cripple the Planning Commission with budget cuts, and just to make sure they were crippled stack the deck with developers as Planning Commissioners I am glad he was finally stopped. Everyone loves sports and kids………nobody likes sprawl or an ill-conceived 40 million dollar spending spree when times are tight.
Interestingly enough….. one of those many great qualities that we are supposed to learn in sports..especially by our coaches as kids seemed to have been missed by Mr. Norman…………HOW TO BE A GOOD LOSER. He whined like a child after he lost today.
October 3rd, 2007 at 6:41 pm
So much for “good sportsmanship”; you’d think Norman would know what it is after all his years on the field.
October 3rd, 2007 at 7:51 pm
Bad ideas never die at the county commission, they keep them in the background till public attention wavers and they can pass them in the dark of night. It is not halted, it is delayed, and the will of the commission is NOT the will of the people.
Be vigilant and make your politicians accountable by voting.
October 3rd, 2007 at 8:42 pm
We need to be watchful of the Cone Ranch property, and for that matter, any large tracts of land that are left in the NE part of the county. Just because this proposed park did not move forward doesn’t mean that there isn’t something else waiting in the wings. At today’s meeting, a Doctor from Clearwater spoke in favor of building the sports complex. Why? because he owns around 400 acres to the South of the Cone Ranch and he intends to develop it. So, you see this part of the county is being viewed as the next WIDE OPEN space for development. WE ARE WATCHING! OUR ATTENTION WILL NOT WAVER! WE WILL NOT BE BULLDOZED!
October 3rd, 2007 at 9:06 pm
Today was a small victory for the citizens in Hillsborough Co. I listened to what Mayor Lott was saying about what these “select” and “travelling” teams pay to play; I could just envision all the other “recreational” players getting left behind/out because their families can’t/won’t come up with that kind of cash. Well, I think this victory is for our regular kids here who can benefit from having more parks and fields to play their games on. Life lessons and team work do not have to come with competition always, but with cooperation also. My thoughts are if one can afford to pay to play at Disney then so be it. I don’t want to “have to” or be “made to” foster that culture.
October 3rd, 2007 at 9:19 pm
Anyone who thinks the Park project was anything other than a extension of utilities and roads to the only land left to overbuild on is an ignorant Citizen. The fact that the entire Commission voted against it is a sure sign even they couldn’t get them selves to support the great white elephant.
Until the Victory
October 3rd, 2007 at 10:13 pm
Sprawl is the issue, the problem and will hamper our growth. We need density, and with it comes lower cost of living, public transportation, and more community.
October 3rd, 2007 at 10:21 pm
Sanity (and Justice) prevailed! Jim Norman and his cronies couldn’t see fit to fund Public Access Television, but he had no problem allocating this obscene amount of money for his ridiculous pet project… Good On Ya commissioners who voted against it.. Now let’s kill this thing for good.. And while you’re at it, why don’t let loose a little of that $40,000,000. in support of Democracy and the First Ammendment.. What do you say?
October 4th, 2007 at 3:41 am
Ding dong! It’s dead! But it didn’t die before Blair and Norman showed their butts again. They could have fared better in the public eye if they hadn’t indignantly gushed about their care for the kids, their years of coaching, and how they taught the kids about life and sportsmanlike conduct. Both were churlish and surly, Norman letting it all hang out because 2008 isn’t his year to get re-upped for BOCC. Blair was forced to play it a bit smoother, especially vote-wise, CYAing for 2008, as the other re-electables saw the handwriting on the wall for their political futures too. But Blair just canNOT control himself completely. My God, I hope none of their coach-ees observed their unsportsmanlike conduct today. Norman looked ready to burst a blood vessel, glaring maliciously at everyone all morning. And Brian, poor Brian, just will NOT learn when to shut his yap and stop making an utter ass of himself. (heeheehee…)
October 4th, 2007 at 8:22 am
THE NEXT BATTLE -
We were saved at the last minute because the commissioners realized that even Houdini couldn’t make Chump-On-A-Stick Park pass muster. We all feel relieved, but I still lay blame on the BOCC for allowing this thing to continue for so long at a significant cost to the taxpayer. Think about it - it took them 2 years and $300K+ to wise up before killing it. A lot of park repair/maintenance could have been done with that $300K. So, they may think that they got a political win for themselves come next election, but I consider this one a skeleton in each of their closets.
Now the next battle will be this - what are they planning on doing with the $40M that is now up-for-grabs???
There is no rest for the weary !!
1 side note - Blair rambled on about how he is a champion for the children - blah, blah, blah…then he says (paraphrase), “if we provide access to sports, we won’t need as many prisons”. Then I guess if we build a sports stadium the size of Okeechobee we can shut down all of the prisons in Florida?
How did this guy get elected??????
October 5th, 2007 at 8:04 am
[...] the dust settled, and Championship Park was no more, most of the citizens left the meeting of the Hillsborough County Board of County Commissioners to [...]
October 6th, 2007 at 4:39 pm
I just have to say the park is a dead issue, but the coaching is not. With these three, Norman, Hagan, and Blair as coaches you have to wonder what lessons they are teaching our kids. Certainly not good sportsmanship, honor, respect for all persons, environmental stewardship, or quest for honest government representation. They certainly don’t care if these kids can get help on their homework, or grow up in a neighborhood where nature still has an honest chance of surviving, or schlorship ranks with sportmanship. I would not want these three anywhere around my kids.