Ravaudage Wants to Play Ball

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Bellows and Rollins HEALTHY LIVING, 10 talk about luring a College Park’s ‘Cheers’ baseball team A revitalization turned the Tap SARAH WILSON Room at Dubsdread into a classy Observer Staff restaurant and event center. Ravaudage developer Dan LIFESTYLES, 8 Bellows is ready to play ball in Winter Park, a new 5,000-seat mi- Building during a rampage nor league baseball stadium be- Volunteers plan to construct ing the newest project in talks as ramps for the disabled in one the focal point of his 50-acre re- speedy weekend of kindness. development project at Lee Road LIFESTYLES, 9 and U.S. Highway 17-92. Bellows is in talks with Roll- Eagles nearing state title ins College to build the estimat- ed $11 million stadium amid the Edgewater has two basketball other mass in-the-works mixed teams with an honest shot at the residential and retail develop- championship. ments set to fill out a full Rav- SPORTS, 4 audage revamp 15 years in the making. PHOTO BY — THE OBSERVER COMMUNITY BULLETIN........... .4 SARAH WILSON “What is just so amazing is A brick walkway will soon beckon visitors to Ravaudage’s first tenant, a Miller’s Winter Park Ale House set to open in two weeks. CALENDAR ................... .7 The massive mixed-use construction project is now the center of rumors that a baseball stadium could be constructed there. LIFESTYLES................... .8 this idea of the office develop- HEALTHY LIVING............... .10 ment, the retail, the residential … OPINIONS ................... .14 it’s literally the synergy of all of it can work out an agreement for a long time, over a year,” Miller baseball team and make it more CLASSIFIEDS ................. .16 built off of and around the base- the stadium’s construction to said of the college’s plan to build than a Rollins College thing, but CULTURE.................... .28 ball stadium,” Bellows said. start early next year. Current a new stadium in Winter Park a whole community thing.” While still in the drafting talks have it encompassing six with hopes of the Rollins’ base- Miller said whether plans at stages, Mike Miller, development and a half acres in the center of ball team playing in it half the Ravaudage work or not, Rollins SUBSCRIBE NOW! director for Rollins College, said Ravaudage, with new-urban de- year, a minor league team utiliz- plans to fund the stadium project VISIT WPMOBSERVER.COM that between Rollins, the city of sign incorporating nearby retail ing it the other half, and the city somewhere in the city as soon as Winter Park, a yet-to-be-named and residential projects in har- using it for community events the deal is right. minor league baseball team and mony with the stadium. when it’s available. “The whole While the stadium idea is still Bellows he’s hopeful that they “We’ve been talking about it intention has been to bring in the n Please see RAVAUDAGE on page 4 Big names rally to save the Wekiva River Publisher statement on page 4. USPS 00-6186 Nature lovers have been working to garner public and government attention to help save a declining Wekiva River and spring water supply BRITTNI JOHNSON than 1,000 nature lovers showed Observer Staff up to fight to save the river and Green sludge mars the for- its springs at the Speak Up Weki- mer white sandy bottom of the va Rally at Wekiwa Springs State Wekiva River, strings of it wav- Park. ing in the current and blocking “If we don’t do something the sunlight that once glittered soon, we may pass the point of off the water’s ripples. Some of no return,” said Jimmy Orth, ex- the slimy algae floats to the top, ecutive director for the St. Johns catching in piles along the bridge Riverkeeper group. “It’s urgent where people gather to look for that we react.” fish in the clear, cool water. But What they’re reacting to is a it’s harder to see them now. problem years in the making, What was once a crystal clear, Orth said. The Wekiva River and swimming hole paradise, local the springs that feed it have been leaders and environmentalists declining in water quality and PHOTO BY SARAH WILSON — THE OBSERVER say, is becoming spoiled. flow. The culprit: nitrates from Former U.S. Sen. Bob Graham asked for a cleanup of the Wekiva River, which has seen On Saturday, Feb. 16, more n Please see WEKIVA on page 2 algal blooms and sludge from pesticides and fertilizers that have crept into the water. Page 2 Thursday, Feb. 21, 2013 Winter Park / Maitland Observer Battle continues over Battaglia development SARAH WILSON stall the process. right to decide whether it in fact state will reconsider the city’s pro- Observer Staff Mo Shams, Druid Isles resi- wants the 56-acre area between posed change to allow Maitland “I am not for Maitland residents upset over dent and the attorney who filed lakes Charity, Hope and Faith east to permit this land, owned by the the idea of development in Mait- the complaint in Tallahassee, of Interstate 4 and west of Mait- Battaglia Group, to be open for the project, I land Concourse North are taking said he and his neighbors are try- land Avenue to be developed – or commercial use, including stores their concerns to the top, chal- ing to close the door on putting not. of up to 65,000 square feet in don’t even know lenging changes to the land’s pro- commercial development in their “I am not for the project, I size. The potential development, posed Comprehensive Develop- neighborhood before the Council don’t even know what the project Shams said, will negatively im- what the project ment Plan to decision makers in can open it despite their opposi- is yet,” Schieferdecker said. “… I pact his and his neighbors’ prop- Tallahassee. tion. just hope we’ll have an opportu- erty values as well as put the area is yet. … I just Angry over the Maitland City “Once you open the door for nity to look at it.” at a great risk for flooding. hope we’ll have Council’s unanimous decision these things you can’t close it.” Design plans have yet to be The issue is tentatively sched- last month to seek state approval Shams said. “It just doesn’t close laid for the area, and won’t be uled to be back before Council, an opportunity of changing the land use develop- anymore.” drafted or proposed until after with feedback from the state, on ment designation from residential The city argues the exact oppo- the Comprehensive Development March 25, but the mayor said the to look at and office use to mixed-use resi- site, Mayor Howard Schieferdeck- Plan is altered if given approval process may be slowed by the Feb. dential, office and commercial, er saying that by not allowing the by the state, he said. 13 challenge filed by Shams. it.” – Mayor seven residents have officially door to possible development to By offering the challenge to “We don’t know what to ex- signed an administrative action to open, the city is denying itself the Tallahassee, Shams hopes the pect now,” Scheiferdecker said. Schieferdecker WEKIVA | After years of lip service, organizers say they’ve seen tangible moves toward river’s cleanup n CONTINUED FROM FRONT PAGE really irreplaceable.” Before the rally, that was some- fertilizers put on lawns and land thing that Williams didn’t see used for agriculture, and sew- happening. But the Friday before, age, that have seeped into the the DEP released its “Basin Man- springs. The nitrates create an agement Action Plan” to help environment ripe for lots of algae fight pollution in the springs and and plants to grow, those plants river. It’s a start, he said. die, and the scum you find in the Orlando Democrats Rep. Lin- Wekiva is what happens, he ex- da Stewart and Sen. Darren Soto plained, degrading the quality drafted a bill together to protect and flow of the water. the springs as well. Those that or- Of the eight springs that feed ganized the rally — the League of the Wekiva River, four are im- Women Voters of Orange County, paired, including the two largest, Friends of the Wekiva River, St. said Robert Williams, a member Johns Riverkeeper and Florida of the counsel for the Center for Conservation Coalition — are Earth Jurisprudence’s Springs slowly reaching some of their Initiative. Their flows are below goals to bring political attention the level which there would be to the cause. significant ecological harm to the But it’s more than just getting spring. the river and springs back to spar- The Water Management Dis- kling, their health is a window PHOTO BY SARAH WILSON — THE OBSERVER trict (WMD) is required by law to into our own aquifer’s health, Swimmers enjoy the springs at Wekiwa Springs State Park, the site of a rally by activists to try to save it from further damage.

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