Oakland A’s stadium plan take another step forward with lengthy environmental report

At almost 4,000 pages, a revised environmental impact report gives critics of the proposed Oakland A’s stadium near Jack London Square plenty of ammunition for a legal challenge to the planned $6 billion development, according to the San Francisco Business Times.

The report has doubled in size since a preliminary version in February laid out the 35,000-seat waterfront ballpark development at the Port of Oakland’s Howard Terminal. The project would include 3,000 housing units, 1.5 million square feet of office space and 18 acres of parks and open space.

The final version took into account about 350 individual comments submitted based on the draft report, as well as almost 70 comments from organizations ranging from the Union Pacific Railroad to the Propeller Club of Northern California. Eighteen public agencies also made comments, including the California Highway Patrol, which worried that the project would hurt its ability to police roads due to “increased traffic congestion, response times, collisions, enforcement activities and related services calls,” the agency wrote in a letter to the city this spring.

The Oakland Planning Commission will consider the expanded final EIR at a meeting in January and the Oakland City Council could vote to certify it in February. A’s President Dave Kaval has been a vocal supporter,  even as the team moves forward with alternative plans to move to Las Vegas from its Oakland Coliseum site.

“Huge milestone! Howard Terminal or bust!” he tweeted after the report was released. “Now let’s get a binding vote!”

[SFBT] — Emily Landes 

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