The Oakland Athletics won a ballgame 13-12 on Wednesday at RingCentral Coliseum. They then lost 54-5 at the Oakland Planning Commission.
In three hours of comments on the adequacy of the draft environmental impact report for the A's waterfront ballpark project at Howard Terminal, 54 Oakland residents, environmentalists, shipping industry employees, law students and community activists roughed up the document pitched by city planners. They said the study and the overall development is incomplete, offers vague relief options and throws a curve to affordable housing, pollution, maritime jobs, transportation and other issues.
Besides the team's 11th straight win on the field, there is good news for the A's and city officials: The Planning Commission meeting isn't their final game. Comments made about the draft EIR at meetings, by mail, email and online until 4 p.m. Tuesday will be gathered in a final document, which is required by the California Environmental Quality Act and is expected to be completed later this year. The draft EIR was released in February.
By design, the process gives the A's and the city time to look at and fix potential problems in the draft report.
But the Planning Commission's hearing over Zoom offered an early look at what A's owner John Fisher and President Dave Kaval face in trying to build a massive privately financed development on 55 acres of Port of Oakland property near Jack London Square. The project includes a 35,000-seat ballpark, up to 3,000 residential units, as much as 1.5 million square feet of office space, a 400-room hotel and a 3,500-seat indoor performance venue. Take a look at renderings of the proposed project released in February in the gallery below.