At least 2 baseball fields to be lost due to Micron expansion

Two popular baseball fields in Manassas will soon be paved over to make way to more parking for the city’s largest employer, Micron.

Micron will pay for the construction of the parking lot that will replace two of eight fields at the E.G. Smith Baseball Complex at the corner of Route 28 and Godwin Drive, and will also build an equipment shed for use by the Greater Manassas Baseball League.

On June 3, Manassas Director of Community Development Liz Via-Gossman, during a city council meeting, told officials the EG Smith Baseball Complex in the City and how they will need to be eventually replaced.

“We have worked out an agreement with Micron. As you know, pre-COVID-19, they were in desperate need of parking, as were we,” Via-Gossman explained.

In a slideshow presented to the council, she pointed out the north lot on the property, which is now the second substation to supply electricity to the Micron complex and is no longer available to EG Smith for recreational use. This was about 70 spaces that they lost, according to Via-Gossman.

“If you were out at any ball games last spring, you know that cars were all over the place,” Via-Gossman said. 

The need for additional parking comes as the chipmaker is undergoing a massive expansion that is expected to bring 1,100 high-paying jobs to the region. At $3 billion, the expansion marks the largest public-private partnership in Virginia history, larger than Amazon’s HQ2 project in Arlington.

Micron will construct a temporary 140-space gravel parking lot, and help reform and reorganize the area noted as the West Lot so parking at the E.G. Smith complex will be more efficient, city leaders say. Micron can use the parking during the day and visitors to the ballfield complex may use it in the afternoons and evenings.

In addition, Micron is making its surface parking available for tournaments over the next several seasons as they continue construction “and while the fields are still there,” Via-Gossman said.

Fields seven and eight will be paved over to create the new parking lot, said Via-Gossman. The two fields could not be in use simultaneously because “they were overlap fields for the smaller children,” she added.

As Micron counties to expand, there is a possibility it will take even more fields away from the baseball complex, leaving the city searching for land to replace at least six fields for city-resident use. 

One of the possible ideas would be relocating some of the ballfields from EG Smith to nearby Dean Park, which has about 22 acres of undeveloped land. Via-Gossman said she was asking for “head nods” from City Council before they move forward and engage the community about this. 

Colby Poteat, President of the Greater Manassas Baseball League (GMBL), said, “Parking’s always been an issue at GMBL,” Poteat said. He went on to say that, in spring, sometimes they have had up to 900 children play at the complex for a season, and on Saturdays, almost every team plays there. 

When he was a child, Poteat played at the Greater Manassas Baseball League, and his three children all have played there as well. Poteat said the fields that are being taken for parking are where the tee ball kids played.

“The fields being taken away are the fields used mainly for our six and under Blastball and t-ball kids.  The city is going to work with us to ensure we have adequate space at other fields in the city for all of the kids to be able to practice.  Game times and fields on Saturday will look a little different as we will be playing t-ball games on the other fields which will push the start times of the older kids back to the afternoon.” Poteat said.