The Oakland A’s said they agreed to build the amount of onsite affordable housing the city wants at the team’s proposed waterfront ballpark — a key sticking point in their negotiations with officials — in exchange for more money to help pay for infrastructure, but the city rejected the terms.
Dave Kaval, president of the A’s, said the baseball team agreed to the city’s terms for onsite affordable housing— 15% — in exchange for tax money generated by the parking, sales and business license taxes to help pay for infrastructure upgrades at the proposed ballpark site. Kaval did not specify how much tax money the team wanted. Mayor Libby Schaaf said the revenue from those taxes would be millions of dollars.
“We are working hard to get to a negotiated settlement that can work for all parties,” Kaval told The Chronicle. “I thought that was a fair compromise to try to get this project done.”
But Schaaf told The Chronicle the A’s proposal was rejected because the city believes there are “superior ways” to cover the costs identified by the A’s without putting the city’s general fund tax dollars at risk.
The revelation is the latest insight into the status of negotiations between the city and the A’s, which have been working on the final terms of the proposed project for over a year. The two major sticking points have been affordable housing and covering the cost of offsite infrastructure.