State lawmakers voted overwhelmingly on Friday to make it just a little bit easier for the Oakland A’s to build a new ballpark at the Howard Terminal site near the Port of Oakland.
AB 734 would streamline the process for reviewing environmental lawsuits filed against the site. The Howard Terminal location is one of two main spots the team is focusing its new stadium efforts on, the other being its current home at the Oakland Coliseum.
The team’s previous top choice, near Lake Merritt and Peralta Community College, fell through last December when the school pulled out of talks with the team on a stadium deal.
The California Environmental Quality Act, or CEQA, requires a development project to complete an environmental impact report and allows anyone to sue for a judicial review of that report. If Gov. Jerry Brown signs AB 734, those lawsuits would have be adjudicated within 270 days if possible.
The bill’s author, Assemblyman Rob Bonta, D-Oakland, said the bill was based off previous legislation that was passed to facilitate new arena projects for the Golden State Warriors and Sacramento Kings.
View Article