The Ohio State Rowing Team needs a new boathouse. They have the funding, the planning and a location – but some local residents are doing everything they can to keep the boathouse away.

“The boathouse we’re in right now, it’d be nice to have something better,” said Tess Prescott, co-captain of the Ohio State Rowing Team.

Coach Andy Teitelbaum said the 50-plus rowers currently have to change and prepare in a trailer and they have no heating in the building. Their boats are piled in a steel shed.

To remedy this situation, OSU agreed to spend $5 million on a new boathouse on the west bank of the Scioto River in Duranceaux Park. The proposed boathouse would have six bays to store boats for the rowing team, the Greater Columbus Rowing Association and the Columbus Recreation and Parks Department.

The proposal has sparked an outcry from residents of the Duranceaux Park area.

Lynn Friedman and Richard Boettcher, a retired OSU professor, are co-chairs of the Friends of Duranceaux Park and are outraged that the west side of the Scioto River is being considered for a recreation building that Friedman calls a “party house.”

While Boettcher said the Friends of Duranceaux Park is the most vocal of the opposition, the Scioto Trace Neighborhood Association and the Rivergate Neighborhood Association have endorsed them.

Friedman said the community’s opposition is partly a result of failed communication – it was not until March 13, 2008, years after the planning had begun, that the residents learned about the proposed boathouse.

“In the beginning no one around knew about this,” Friedman said. “We got letters about a meeting [on March 13]. A large majority [of residents] were opposed.”

In response to the citizen’s opposition, a joint committee comprised of City of Columbus officials, OSU officials and residents of the Duranceaux Park area began a search to determine the best location for the boathouse. The committee met four times during the summer, narrowing down possible locations to the Duranceaux Park area and a location on the east side of the river.

At the final meeting, Director of the Columbus Department of Recreation and Parks Alan McKnight gave a presentation that implied the location would remain at Duranceaux Park.

“The citizen’s committee didn’t know but everyone else did,” Friedman said.

Since the summer meetings, both sides have continued the battle of the boathouse.

The main reason local residents oppose the boathouse is that the community fears it would take away from the beauty of the park.

The boathouse would “diminish public enjoyment of one of the most aesthetically pleasing sites available to the public,” Boettcher said. “We’re trying to reserve some park land for you and some of your children.”

The Columbus Department of Recreation and Parks argues that the boathouse has a lot to offer.

“The boathouse has a lot of good things happening for the public in the users, more access to the river, provide lighting, a public dock,” said Mollie O’Donnell, planning director of CDRP.

Ben Jay, senior associate athletic director, also insists the positive benefits of the boathouse.

“One of the things we’re adamant is even after the boathouse we want a good neighbor pact to improve the park,” Jay said. “I think what we’re giving to the city is a great recreational asset that people in the city will be able to enjoy for many, many years.”

Teitelbaum said the boathouse would deter criminal and deviant behavior in the park, which some say is an ongoing problem. O’Donnell agrees, but said such incidents have been sparse, and that it is not the motivation behind the creation of the boathouse.

Ultimately, members of the opposition group say plans for the boathouse should be moved to the other side of the river.

“The other side is already developed for this type of recreation,” Boettcher said. “We have rowers over there now. The park land is developed for boating purposes.”

They say the east side of the Scioto River also is better equipped to handle traffic, one of the concerns for the community.

Duranceaux Park “is used by children people walking their dogs people just walking for fun and having a place to walk and stroll,” Friedman said. “If they build the building it will increase traffic.” Thoburn Road, which is the main road leading to the west bank, is already overused and people often drive in the wrong direction, Friedman said.

“I’m more concerned for the safety of young children than that of the rowers,” she said.

But OSU is more preoccupied with protecting the crew team. If the boathouse was on the east side of the river, members of the rowing team would have to carry their 60-foot boats across a trafficked road, Teitelbaum said.

“In good conscience I could not accept [the women crossing with their boats],” Ben Jay said. “I’m not willing to face a parent of one of our rowers that had an incident. You could change it but it doesn’t change the fact that they would have to cross the roads. What troubles me is that the opposition minimalizes the danger.”

Boettcher said some careful planning and engineering could make the road safe.

“I think boater safety is a very important point,” he said. “It’s been OK for high school rowers to do this.” Boettcher proposes adding speed bumps, lights and gates to protect the rowers.

Despite both sides’ arguments, the cost of construction is what most likely will determine the location of the building. According to documents from the architects of the boathouse, Schooley Caldwell Associates, building on the east bank of the Scioto River will cost $5,257,225, compared to $5,007,725 on the west side. The cost of the east side would increase because of the delay in planning.

“We have to build an access road and build parking,” Jay said. He is also concerned about the environmental cost. On the east side, about 49 healthy trees would be cut down, while on the west side 42 would be cut, 11 of which are dead.

More importantly to the rowing team, the boathouse is an opportunity to improve the team.

“Having a new boat house would bring us to a higher caliber to compete with other NCAA schools,” Prescott said. “It would be a better place and rowing atmosphere for people to row and keep the rowing sport alive.”

And ultimately, the boathouse could help the team achieve a long-desired goal.

“We’ve never won an NCAA championship,” Prescott said. “It’s foreseen in the future.”

Everdeen Mason can be reached at [email protected].