A's Waterfront Ballpark Proposal To Be Floated At Oakland Meeting
OAKLAND (BCN) -- A proposal to build a 39,000-seat baseball stadium for the Oakland A's near Jack London Square will be discussed at the Oakland Planning Commission's meeting Wednesday night.
The site, called Victory Square, is bounded by Oak Street, the Lake Merritt Channel, Interstate Highway 880 and the Embarcadero.
Planning Commission Chair Doug Boxer said the commission will get input from the public Wednesday night on what should be included in an environmental impact report for the project.
The deadline for public comment on the environmental impact report is Dec. 9 and the study will begin shortly after that, Boxer said. Such studies normally take 12 to 18 months, he said.
Oakland City Councilman Ignacio De La Fuente, the vice chair of the board that oversees the Oakland Coliseum, where the A's currently play their games, said he thinks the city shouldn't pay for an environmental impact report until it gets a commitment from the A's and Major League Baseball that the team will stay in Oakland.
Baseball commissioner Bud Selig appointed a committee in March 2009 to study whether the team should stay in Oakland or move to San Jose or Fremont.
A's owner Lew Wolff previously proposed two possible stadium sites in Fremont and currently is considering the possibility of building a stadium in San Jose - though San Jose leaders announced Wednesday that they will have to delay the vote on a proposal to bring the team south.
De La Fuente said, "I don't think we should spent the taxpayers' money on a study until we receive a real commitment from Major League Baseball and the A's about staying in Oakland."
He estimated that an environmental impact study could cost millions of dollars.
The Planning Commission's meeting was scheduled for 6 p.m. Wednesday in Hearing Room One at Oakland City Hall.
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