Lee County Red Sox sites get Green Ranking

Quattrone & Associates Inc. conceptual site plan for Alico Lakeside Red Sox proposal.

An environmental group released a study Tuesday that ranked Alico Lakeside's site west of Interstate 75 and north of Alico Road as No. 1 of nine candidates to become the new Boston Red Sox spring training facility.
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The target date to open the new stadium is spring training 2012. The Red Sox have trained at City of Palms Park in downtown Fort Myers since 1993.

Alico partner B.J. Rosinus hopes the panel of Lee County and Red Sox officials working to narrow the list from nine to one will take his firm's offer of donated property into consideration.

"We try to meet everything they were looking for," Rosinus said. "I would hope something like this would at least persuade them to look at it closely."

The Conservancy of Southwest Florida's report praised Alico Lakeside site for its location near I-75 about "2.5 miles away via Alico Road" and limited impact on wildlife and wetlands.

No. 2 on the Conservancy's list was Three Oaks Regional, which is south of Alico Road and west of Three Oaks Parkway.

The rankings and study were mailed to the Lee County commission on Tuesday.

"We certainly expect they'll consider this," Conservancy President Andrew McElwaine said.

The Conservancy looked at factors such as land use/zoning, transportation, impact on wildlife and wetlands.

"This is science based," said Jennifer Hecker, the Conservancy's natural resource policy manager.

From the report: "As a result we have found some sites to be suitable, some to be less desirable, and two that would be unsuitable."