East Point wanted to fix up Grayson Baseball Field in Sumner Park but ran afoul of federal historic preservation standards — even if there’s nothing particularly historic about the ballfield itself.
The 1950s-era baseball diamond has aging concrete-block dugouts and related small buildings, and poured-concrete bleachers that are crumbling. So more than a year ago the city of East Point applied for a federal Community Development Block Grant to fix up the dugouts and resurface the bleachers.
Instead, the money was redirected to a replacement project in East Point: $170,000 to build a new playground and replace two volleyball courts in Bryan Park, according to Kim Benjamin, Fulton County community development manager.
The money will be spent by November, she said.
Fulton County gets a lump sum annually from the CDBG program, much of which it parcels out to cities for specific projects. But those projects have to meet certain criteria, including historic preservation.
Credit: Jim Gaines
Credit: Jim Gaines
Historic preservation rules, as the name indicates, are meant to protect historically significant structures from alteration or demolition. That they do; but in some circumstances they can also become barriers to repair or improvement, especially at sites more than 50 years old.
Plans to bring the ballfield up to “industry standard” are detailed in a presentation to CDBG and historic preservation officials sent in August 2022 by consultant Anthony Pappas of Foresite Group:
- Replacing the concrete-block dugouts with vinyl-clad fencing and metal roofs.
- Replacing the concrete bleachers, which don’t meet safety codes, with new bleachers and terraced block walls.
- Replacing the old coaches’ box, which has a “structurally unsound” roof, with a black steel tower.
- Replacing the sagging, rusted backstop fence with a new vinyl-clad fence.
- Grading and sodding the field.
“The intent of the renovations for Grayson Field are to improve the safety of the facility first and foremost,” Pappas wrote. “Design improvements are not large-scale changes from the existing layout and orientation of the field, but rather itemized changes to bring the park into conformance with current design codes and to improve the use and aesthetics of the active park site.”
The required environmental and historic review took 10 months, Benjamin said.
Deputy State Historic Preservation Officer Jennifer Dixon delivered the verdict in an Aug. 17, 2022 letter to Stanley Wilson, director of the Fulton County Department of Housing and Community Development.
She described the ballfield as “contributing” to the adjacent Conley Hills and Semmes Park residential historic districts, both of which are eligible for the National Register of Historic Places.
“The demolition and incompatible replacement of character-defining features, including bleachers, dugouts, and a coaches’ box, from a contributing resource within a NRHP-eligible historic district is not consistent with the Secretary of the Interior’s Standards for the Treatment of Historic Properties,” Dixon’s letter says.
If the project was to move forward roughly as proposed, it would require a memorandum of understanding with federal historic preservation officials, probably involving consultation with the state on resolving adverse effects, she wrote.
And that would take too long. Projects funded by CDBG grants have to be done in a limited time, but some historic reviews and plans have taken over a decade, according to Mark Baucom, senior public affairs officer for Fulton County.
“Even though there is a way to mitigate/minimize through the planning process to get the project started, the cost of reviews and time lag outweigh the benefit of renovating a historical site,” he said. “In fact, a consultant to the county recommended that anytime a project is located in a historic district, the county should choose a different location. The compliance requirements are too extensive when dealing with historical properties.”
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