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September 29, 2004This time, proposed baseball stadium is a hitPlanners OK the Wuerfels' dream projectByRecord-Eagle staff writer TRAVERSE CITY - A plan for a professional baseball stadium resurrected itself quietly in Blair Township - exactly a year to the day a similar proposal for Elmwood Township died in headlines and controversy. At a special meeting Sept. 21, Blair planning commissioners gave unanimous final approval to a 4,500-seat baseball stadium proposed by Wuerfel Sports Development, LLC, the same family corporation that planned the Elmwood Township stadium. The stadium and entertainment facility will sit on 25 acres in the Chums Village business/industrial park west of U.S. 31 and south of Rennie School Road. The site plan requires no further approval. "We believe there are reasons things happen," Leslye Wuerfel said. "Now we have a spot already zoned commercial and in an area that's welcoming growth." It has higher visibility, better roads, and the state is putting in a traffic light at the U.S. 31/Rennie School Road intersection next summer, she said. No public money will be dedicated to the project, Wuerfel said. Last year on Sept. 21, after months of publicity and controversy over zoning, the Wuerfels announced they would withdraw their Elmwood Township proposal. "The story came out last time before we even made an offer on the property," Leslye Wuerfel said. "This time we told people we'd rather appreciate it if they wouldn't talk about it until we were sure we'd do it." Blair Township neighbors contacted by the Record-Eagle supported the stadium, unlike the critical reception the Wuerfels received when they tried to rezone 60 acres of agriculture land on M-72 and Bugai Road. "It sounds like a pretty good idea to me," said Bob Stahl, who lives in the closest subdivision to the project. "A baseball stadium, that's cool." Township clerk Betty Tharp lives in the same subdivision. She said they are not that close to the stadium and there is already plenty of light pollution from car dealerships that leave lights on all night along U.S. 31. The only concern raised by her neighbors was traffic cutting through the subdivision, but the road will be blocked to non-residents during games. "We've been called the armpit of Traverse City for many years," Tharp said. "We are growing and this is a positive thing for Blair Township." The Wuerfel family intends to begin construction by November and field the Traverse City Beach Bums of the independent Frontier League in May 2006, Leslye Wuerfel said. They have tentative approval from the league pending construction of the stadium. The family has not decided if it will start a new franchise and pay the $825,000 franchise fee or purchase an existing team, she said. Regardless, it will have a $1.5 million annual operating budget and provide five full-time and 75 seasonal jobs. Wuerfel said the family initially dismissed going to Blair Township because it wanted more space. The original plan called for an indoor practice facility large enough to host winter baseball leagues. "We were going to be the center of baseball in northern Michigan," she said. The Wuerfels won't be building that facility or little league fields either, but the baseball stadium will be the same as the original proposal. It will feature 3,500 hard seats plus table seating, 18 luxury boxes and grass seating behind the outfield fences. Office space, concessions, indoor batting rooms and two clubhouses will be housed in a two-story building connected to the seating. Wuerfel said eventually they want to build a 30-unit hotel in right field primarily to house visiting teams and umpires. She said league teams currently pay on average $35 to house the visitors. "Can you imagine finding a hotel room in Traverse City in the summer for $35 a night?" she said.
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