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Parolee Reporting Center Could Be Added Near Sacramento MLS Stadium

SACRAMENTO (CBS13) — Pushback is building against a proposed parolee reporting center that would open just a block from the Sacramento Republic's proposed Major League Soccer stadium.

Sacramento's river district sits on the so-called "other side of the tracks," where homeless tents take up entire city blocks, and big trucks turn into distribution centers loading up their deliveries.

Now, inside one building, a company in contract with the Federal Bureau of Prisons wants to open a federal parolee day reporting center.

Sacramento city staff are recommending denying the application.

"It's a subject that's open to debate," Sacramento City Councilman Jeff Harris said.

The idea is facing pushback from those seeking to turn the area around, and eyeing a new MLS stadium as jump-starting that plan.

The proposed parolee center would be open just a block from the touted $225 million privately-financed Sacramento Republic stadium.

"This is very close to MLS, to the entrance to our city" Harris said. "Is this the kind of use you want right there at the gateway to downtown Sacramento."

The proposed stadium is contingent on Sacramento joining MLS, a move that is likely to come in December around its State of the League address.

Harris says the vision for the River District is similar to Portland's Pearl District, a former industrial area now known for art galleries and upscale business.

"It has the bone structure to be the perfect transition into our downtown core," Harris said.

It's a troubled neighborhood that Sacramento is designing for better days that may have no place for a proposed parole reporting center.

The planning commission will be voting on this proposal later this week.

The Sacramento Republic did not take a position on it.

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