As the walls around Williams’ Bakery prepare to come down, voices from the neighborhood beyond it are speaking up in response to the University’s preparations for a new basketball arena.
Since the location for the arena was decided late last year, members of the Fairmount Neighborhood have been adamant in voicing their opposition to the plan. But while the University has maintained contact with the Fairmount Neighborhood Association, its actions seem all but indicative that by the summer of 2010 there will be a new arena in Fairmount’s backyard – whether the area’s residents like it or not.
It’s highly unlikely any action by the neighborhood association will prevent the arena from being built. That’s not the issue. We support the arena plan, under the premise that it will bring new revenue to the athletic department and cement the University’s status as a flagship school on the West Coast.
What undermines the legitimacy of the arena is the project’s classification as a “university building” rather than an arena, which allows the project to circumvent requirements for public input. When construction projects such as the impending arena plan are drawn up, developers are usually required to complete what’s known as a conditional use permit. The purpose of these permits is to ensure that residents who are affected by a new development have a say in the building process and work with the city so that everyone feels satisfied with the result.
If the University has its way, Fairmount residents won’t get that right. Because the arena is being built on University grounds, there is nothing wrong on the surface with City Planning Director Lisa Gardner’s decision that the arena could be classified as a University project, and therefore be exempt from conditional use permit regulations.
Nevertheless, Gardner’s decision has undermined what little faith Fairmount neighborhood residents had in the construction process, and they have made it clear with their opposition to the project in its entirety, and Gardner’s ruling more specifically. While we would like to see the plans for the arena move forward, the Fairmount Neighborhood Association has every reason to oppose it.
Ideally, the arena will be built in time for the 2010-11 basketball season. But more important than a quick and speedy construction process will be ensuring the concerns of Fairmount Neighborhood residents are taken into account. These include taking steps to keep litter, noise and traffic under control. For these reasons, and to show good faith to the Fairmount community, the University should not circumvent the conditional use permit process, which has been laid out so that miscommunications like the one we’re currently seeing are avoided.