Group works to keep MLK Jr. Park off list of venues for minor league stadium

WINTER PARK, Fla. — A Winter Park group is taking action against a proposed location for a professional minor league baseball stadium.

There are four parks up for consideration and the group wants to get Martin Luther King Jr. Park off the list.

Every week, the park is full of activity, from the playground to the sports field, and residents said while they’re not against baseball; they just don’t want it at the park.

“I’m over here taking pictures of birds all the time and it’s a nice, peaceful place to be,” said Winter Park resident Gene Randall.

Randall said there’s nothing peaceful about the park making a list of possible venues for a professional minor league stadium.

“To put a professional venue in a community park just seems wrong,” Randall said.

Randall joined the group Protect MLK Jr. Park, a political action committee aimed at collecting signatures to keep the park from becoming a site for the stadium.

Longtime resident Sally Flynn is a supporter of the group, and agrees that the traffic and noise that would come with the stadium would be too much.

“Denning Drive is already a very clogged street from all the new development that’s on it,” she said.

Some of the athletes who have used the fields at the parks for decades said they also want the city to take the park off the list.

“I can’t imagine this being anything (other) than what it is right now,” park goer Jesse Olinger said.

There's an ongoing study with the city to go over the proposed venues, and assess the challenges with each one.

WFTV contacted the city Saturday for an update but officials have not responded.

The study's findings are due in August, but the goal of the petition is to have the park off the list before that happens.

WFTV