The next issue discussed was the baseball stadium location and the status of the river site. Patti Allen advised the group that one of the problems with the river site was that it was too small. The owner wants a state-of-the-art retractable roof and apparently this roof will take additional area and the architects felt this would be a very tight fit for the stadium on this property. Phil Everingham advised that he attended a meeting of the GMCC Baseball Task Force and they endorsed a downtown Miami site, but were not specific as to which downtown site. Group discussion ensued concerning the merits of a smaller, less costly stadium and the issue of rain delays. Rain delays are a large problem in west Dade, but afternoon and evening rains are not as frequent near Downtown. Discussion concluded as it became obvious that this was a decision to be made by the Marlin's owner and we were confident he was fully briefed on the pros and cons of the river site. It was felt that the Baseball stadium on the river would be the best opportunity to assist in redevelopment of the downtown community.

Jose Cassanova provided an informative presentation on the "Riverside Redevelopment Project", which is a City funded project to improve the riverfront and neighborhood area around Lummus Park. Redevelopment in this area is problematic, as the available riverfront properties are very narrow. Current zoning requirements, including setbacks and onsite parking requirements, basically preclude development of this city owned riverfront property. The City would like to encourage development of restaurants and boat dockage in this area. The redevelopment draft plan includes refurbishment of some of the existing small boat docks, but would eliminate some existing slips. Fran Bohnsack interjected that this is exactly why she is concerned about under the Manatee Protection Plan - this reduction of slips would be a permanent loss of boating dockage on the river. The City of Miami wants to maximize the upland use and floated the idea of a riverwalk that was actually built out over the river so upland areas could be saved. There was no consensus on this issue- pro or con. Additional discussion ensued. Overall the group felt that boat slips would cause an interaction of the public with the river and would be better for commercial development of the area. No conclusions were reached and the in summary the group requested that the City keep us informed of the progress of this redevelopment project.

Under new business Fran Bohnsack discussed a letter that Bob Parks provided to the group concerning a redevelopment ordinance used in Clearwater, Florida. This ordinance helped them improve neighborhoods through redevelopment. There was some discussion that this was not a good idea as the ordinance allowed, under certain conditions, the use of eminent domain. Jim McDonald ruled that this would be placed on the agenda for next working group meeting and it would be recommended to the full MRC that no action be taken until this working group completed review of the ordinance.