Agency clears way for Oakland Athletics $12B ballpark plan

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A California agency on Thursday cleared the way for the Oakland Athletics to continue planning a $12 billion waterfront ballpark project.

The San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission voted 23-2 to reclassify a 56-acre terminal at the Port of Oakland as a mixed-use area where a new ballpark could be built. The vote is the first in a series of legal hurdles the team would have to overcome before it gets permission to break ground for the project.

The commission followed the recommendation of its staff, which found the team demonstrated removing the terminal from port use “would not detract from the region’s capability to handle the projected growth in cargo.”

Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf said the approval moved the city closer to bringing "this bold vision into a beautiful reality and keep our A’s rooted in Oakland for generations to come.”

“Our city has historically been overlooked for major economic development, but today that story about Oakland changes,” she said in a statement.

The A’s are the last professional franchise remaining in Oakland after the NBA’s Golden State Warriors relocated to San Francisco and the NFL’s Raiders to Las Vegas in recent years. The defections weigh heavily on the Bay Area city of roughly 400,000 people, some of whom pleaded with the commission Thursday to work harder to keep the team and accompanying coliseum jobs.

Last year, the Oakland City Council approved preliminary terms for the project but A’s President Dave Kaval said the financial terms didn’t work for the team. Kaval said the team was proceeding with “parallel paths,” planning new ballparks in Oakland and Las Vegas.

The A’s top-level minor league team, the Las Vegas Aviators, have played since April 2019. Their stadium is several miles...