A’s, city unite on ballpark, but obstacles remain - San Francisco Chronicle

Leaders of the Oakland A’s and the city united Wednesday behind the design of a downtown ballpark — something that looked out of reach just a year ago.

The team and city worked closely together in recent months to develop the plan, which achieves their common goal of keeping the team in town — and in the A’s preferred location — while allaying city concerns that an abandoned Coliseum site would become an albatross.

But it’s not a done deal and many hurdles remain, including all the challenges of fitting a professional sports stadium into an industrial port and getting buy-in from community members and commercial neighbors.

No agreements are in place between the team and public agencies that are part of the negotiations. The parties have not reached any economic deal, and there will be a months-long process to hammer out community benefits, infrastructure spending, transportation plans and other issues.

Still, Oakland officials projected optimism Wednesday as the team unveiled its vision for the two pieces of property, complete with glitzy renderings and a public campaign to get fans and residents on board.

“This is really a gorgeous starting line,” Mayor Libby Schaaf said.

For Howard Terminal, plans call for a privately financed “jewel box” waterfront stadium, facing due east, which would be topped by a “green loop” living park. Nearby would be a promenade, harbor bath for swimming, playground, retail and housing.

At the Coliseum, the team wants to help build a tech and housing hub that would retain Oracle Arena, while stripping the existing stadium down to a low-rise sports park and amphitheater.

It doesn’t hurt that Schaaf personally has long favored the team building at Howard Terminal as a way to revitalize nearby neighborhoods and grow Jack London Square.

“Since the moment I became the mayor, I’ve always expressed a dream of the A’s ballpark being at Howard Terminal, so this is a pretty satisfying day for me,” Schaaf said. “Those truck chassis don’t deserve that view.”

On Friday, the A’s will begin the yearlong review process of Howard Terminal under the California Environmental Quality Act. Hurdles that likely will need to be addressed include traffic congestion, water issues, plus any toxicities on the land, which currently is used for long-term truck parking and container storage.

The team will have to manage relationships with — or somehow remove — heavy industrial neighbors like the Schnitzer Steel scrap recycler, Union Pacific Railroad lines and a Pacific Gas and Electric Co. substation.

It’s a different set of players than those of a year ago, when the A’s wanted to build at a spot next to Lake Merritt. Students and faculty of nearby Laney College, as well as some community members and environmental groups, loudly opposed the proposal. The outcry was enough to prompt the Peralta Community College District, the owner of the land, to reject the A’s offer.

For months, a staff of about 100 planners, consultants and designers have been working with city and county officials on the latest proposal, said A’s President Dave Kaval. The process has included regular meetings with city officials in the Planning and Building and Race and Equity departments.

The A’s even hired a maritime consultant to help them figure out how to keep iconic shipping-container cranes in place, Kaval said. Like other aspects of the plans, what those cranes might be used for is still to be determined. Kaval said they could be an off-ramp for riders of the aerial gondola that he wants to build to lift ballpark patrons to and from the Oakland City Center BART station a mile away.

The team and City Council members have held workshops for community members to give their opinions. Kaval said 500 already have done so and that their input helped to form the basis of the Coliseum site proposal.

For now, it’s unclear from whom the team would buy or lease the Coliseum land. It’s jointly owned and managed by Oakland and Alameda County, the latter of which has been trying to offload its ownership stake for years.

To the chagrin of some city leaders, county officials are negotiating with both them and the team to sell their share of the property. The city wants to first buy out the county’s interest to be in a better negotiating position with the A’s. Schaaf said Oakland officials have identified a financing structure to do so.

Alameda County Supervisor Nate Miley called the current oversight structure involving the city, county and joint powers authority board “a three-headed monster,” but thinks it could get decapitated within the next 90 days.

“I’m still a little skeptical, but I’m hopeful just because the A’s are motivated and Major League Baseball is motivated. The players at the city of Oakland are motivated to make this happen,” said Miley, chairman of the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum board. “I think that produces enough momentum to get us beyond the inertia that has caused us not to be able to move forward in the past.”

As for the stadium plans more broadly, Miley said, “It’s not going to be an easy lift.” Working out a community-benefits deal and maneuvering around transit issues like the railroad will be difficult, he said.

“There are a lot of obstacles,” Miley said. “I applaud the A’s for wanting to go down that road. ... I don’t want to say it, but maybe if it’s not successful, they still have the Coliseum as a fallback.”

Kimberly Veklerov is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: kveklerov@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @kveklerov

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