The Oakland Mayor Thao sports resolution that supports the Oakland A’s in Oakland contains embarrassing errors on Howard Terminal EIR and ballpark location
Oakland (Special to ZennieReport.com) – Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao, Oakland At-Large Councilmember Rebecca Kaplan and Oakland Councilmember Janani Ramachandran must recall the sports resolution set for Tuesday, November 7th, 2023, and called:
RESOLUTION AFFIRMING THAT THE OAKLAND A’S BELONG IN OAKLAND, AND RECOGNIZING THE SUBSTANTIAL AND TANGIBLE PROGRESS THE CITY HAS ACHIEVED IN WORKING TOWARD A PROPOSED OAKLAND WATERFRONT BALLPARK DISTRICT TO BE DEVELOPED ON THE PROPERTY KNOWN AS THE HOWARD TERMINAL (ADJACENT TO THE FERRY DOCK AND THE AREA KNOWN AS JACK LONDON SQUARE) AT THE PORT OF OAKLAND.
And because it contains not a few factual errors, starting with the Howard Terminal Environmental Impact Report, or “EIR”. For example, take the part regarding the EIR to start with.
The sports resolution reads (downloadable copy here):
WHEREAS, in legal challenges brought by outside interest groups, on September 21, 2022 the Alameda County Superior Court ruled that the EIR is legally adequate and complies with CEQA, and the California Court of Appeal upheld that ruling and denied an appeal on March 30, 2023; and the time to seek review in the California Supreme Court has long since passed, meaning that the EIR is legally adequate and can be used for consideration of the final Project applications; and..
First Problem: Writ Filed Against Howard Terminal EIR
That is not true. As recently as Friday, October 13th, 2023, Alameda County Superior Court issued a writ against the Howard Terminal EIR, and because it did not have a remedy for a projected problem with how wind would be handled by the ballpark’s design. There were and are no completed construction drawings, just artist renderings for the Howard Terminal Ballpark, and one can’t base what the facility will actually be from pretty-picture renderings.
The City of Oakland has 120 Days to explain to the Court how it intends to solve the problem. Indeed, the latest extension was because the City admitted it had no idea what it was going to do in solving the problem. That was written in the City of Oakland’s Friday, October 13th, 2023 answer to the writ by the Court. Meanwhile, the A’s are off to Las Vegas.
Also, that the sports resolution completely leaves out the problems with wind that caused the Alameda County Superior Court to say the EIR was defective and not fully certified, smells of a corrupt attempt to fool the Oakland City Council. But the problems do not stop there.
Second Problem: Port Priority Use Resorted With Howard Terminal EIR Case Loss In Court
The sports resolution also states:
“Worked successfully to achieve the removal of the Port Priority Use designation for the Howard Terminal property by the San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission”
Yeah, but if plaintiff East Oakland Stadium Alliance (EOAC) wins the Court case against the City of Oakland, as it is on its way to doing, the way the case remedy is written, Howard Terminal is put back on “Port Priority Use designation”. That means the City of Oakland has to go through the entire EIR process again.
Third Problem: Resolution Calls For Howard Terminal Ballpark But Then Ballpark At New Site, So Which Is It?
And here’s this problem with reasoning. The sports resolution states:
WHEREAS, the proposals that the City and Port have been processing for a large multi- use project on 55 acres at Howard Terminal were entirely based on the requests of the A’s, and the City has multiple potential locations for a Major League Baseball ballpark use, which can easily accommodate the new smaller project requested by the A’s owners, either for only a ballpark, or for a ballpark with dining and entertainment, such as with a portion of the land in the Coliseum (which the A’s are purchasing in an installment sale from Alameda County and the City and A’s will jointly own) or at Howard Terminal; and
First, the entire resolution is confusing: The City of Oakland either wants Howard Terminal Ballpark or a ballpark somewhere else. Which is it?
Second, sending the City Staff on a wild goose-chase for another property is not the way to go. Why throw away Howard Terminal? Just fix the EIR issues.
Fourth Problem: Scaled Down Project Would Rob The City of Tax Increment Revenue
And calling for a scaled-down version is baseless; the A’s project was phased and John Fisher never intended to be sole developer over the entire 55 acres, but MASTER DEVELOPER, and Dave Kaval admitted this in a Zennie62 YouTube Live Interview.
All the City of Oakland has to do, after curing the EIR problem, is release RFPs for a developer team to build the sites around the ballpark and to the footprint that would cause the development of a $12 billion mixed use town-in-town, in a phased fashion. That way, we can gain the tax increment revenue from it, which would be $9.7 billion assuming a 4 percent rate of growth in AV over a 45 year period. That can be done separate from the ballpark, as was the A’s intent to start with. It was never to be done all at once. Whoever put that idea out there is just playing around. It’s not true.
Oakland can build a ballpark city, and even though it would lose the A’s to Las Vegas, it can at least land an MLB expansion team. But the City of Oakland must prove it has the credibility, certainty, and capacity to do it. This sports resolution by the Mayor that’s up for consideration just shows Oakland does not really know what it is doing. Unless Mayor Thao doesn’t mind that look, the City Council legislation should be pulled, fixed, and then reintroduced.