Whereas the Arlington County Civic Federation supports efforts to return major league baseball to the Washington, D.C. area, provided that a stadium home can be found in the D.C. area in a location acceptable to its nearby neighbors; and

Whereas a major league baseball stadium will likely accommodate 45,000 or more fans, likely require a site area of 20 to 30 acres, require parking facilities to accommodate thousands of cars and hundreds of buses, generate substantial traffic and noise, require extensive transportation and other infrastructure improvements for attendees, and impose substantial continuing financial obligations on the community in which the stadium is located; and

Whereas Arlington County is largely built out, densely developed, and not likely to have a site that could accommodate a stadium and be acceptable to the surrounding community; and V Whereas the two Metro station corridors in Arlington County, which would likely be the focus of any Arlington site selection effort, are particularly unsuitable for such a stadium

• The Pentagon City, Crystal City corridor, because any site within this corridor would be unacceptably close to residential neighborhoods, unacceptably close to Reagan National Airport and airplane flight paths, and unacceptably close to the Pentagon and secure military and law enforcement agency buildings, posing the risk of stadium closure for security reasons during periods of heightened security and alerts, and;
• The Rosslyn-Ballston corridor, because there is no site of suitable size, any site (if one were to exist) would be unacceptably close to residential neighborhoods, and the transportation infrastructure does not exist and could not be built without significant condemnation of private property and degradation of residential neighborhoods.

Whereas the Arlington County Civic Federation has a long history opposing the use of public funding for a stadium as noted in its legislative package and did not support a baseball stadium at the Twin Bridges site due to the same community impact issues that will surface at any site in Arlington: and

Whereas a baseball stadium is incompatible with any and all Arlington County land use and community plans, including phased development plans, sector plans, and neighborhood conservation plans; be it therefore

RESOLVED that the Arlington County Civic Federation, in view of the likely absence of an acceptable stadium site in Arlington County, urges elected officials, major league baseball, and the Virginia Stadium Authority to focus their stadium site selection efforts on sites located outside Arlington County, Virginia.

This page was last revised on: December 27, 2003.