Biloxi moving quickly on minor league baseball stadium plans (Sun Herald)

By MARY PEREZ — meperez@sunherald.com

BILOXI — Plans for the new minor league baseball stadium presented Wednesday to the Development Review Committee haven’t changed much from the original renderings. They show “a solid, urban, historic-looking ballpark,” said Leigh Jaunsen, an architect with Dale Partners Architects in Biloxi.

Dale Partners, architects of Biloxi’s Lighthouse Visitors Center and Civic Center, designed the minor league stadium Trustmark Park in Pearl, and was involved in the design of several other ballparks around the South.

“We like baseball,” Jaunsen said.

The DRC meeting was just a week after the Biloxi council approved the stadium. All the architectural plans are scheduled to be complete by February, and Jaunsen said some of the construction work will be out to bid before that.

The stadium architecture is reflective of some of the mission-style buildings around town, she said, including the Civic Center.

“The Beau Rivage picks up on that, too,” she said.

The DRC members reviewed plans for drainage, walkways, landscaping, sidewalks and traffic. Before construction can begin, the project also will need approval from the Planning Commission, City Council and the Architectural and Historical Review Committee, which will look at the exterior appearance and landscape plan. The stadium development needs a conditional-use permit, but the property is zoned correctly and won’t require any variances.

A mandatory tree hearing will be held during the Planning Commission meeting.

“There are 30 trees on the property,” said Eric Nolan, city arborist and DRC chairman, and he said the plans show most of them will be removed.

“Building a baseball stadium, they don’t have a lot of flexibility,” he said. “I hate to lose those trees, but it (the stadium) will be a great thing for the downtown, without a doubt.”