Nats, Astros hope Florida legislature can clear hurdle for new spring training complex

If the Astros and Nationals are going to get their long-awaited shared spring training complex in West Palm Beach, they're going to have to overcome a late-in-the-process hurdle.

The Sun-Sentinel of Fort Lauderdale reported Monday that drinking water protections on the parcel of land where the teams want to have a $135 million facility constructed could stand in the way of the project's completion.

In order for the shared spring training home to move forward, the Florida legislature needs to shrink a protective zone along a canal bordering the southern end of the proposed stadium and an adjacent community park that is to be constructed. The canal moves water to the lakes that supply drinking water to West Palm Beach.

Palm Beach County and West Palm Beach officials want the legislature to make the buffer zone along the portion of the canal that touches the proposed stadium property smaller, allowing for the creation of grass parking areas that could double as youth soccer fields outside of spring training.

At a specially called meeting Monday, the West Palm Beach City Commission voted 4-2 to request the legislature to approve the proposed land regulation change. There's a Feb. 1 deadline to file the bill.

"It's something that has to get done," county administrator Robert Weisman told the Sun-Sentinel. "If it doesn't get approved by the Legislature, then I don't think the teams will go forward."

The Astros and Nationals want to build a new complex on 160 acres at 45th Street and Haverhill Road on the former site of a city waste dump. The Astros would relocate from their current spring home in Kissimmee, while the Nationals would move from Space Coast Stadium in Viera.

The Nationals have been searching for several years for a new home that would necessitate less travel to Grapefruit League games; their closest trip is currently a 75-minute drive to Kissimmee. They have previously tried - and failed - to relocate to Fort Myers, where they would have taken over the old Red Sox complex at City of Palms Park, and Kissimmee, where they sought to have Osceola County build a new complex they would share with the Astros.

City and county leaders have worked over the past few months to facilitate a land swap that makes the tract available and are hopeful that the complex can be built in time for spring training in 2017.