"I'm not convinced Santa Clara County or San Jose is finished trying to attract the A's," said Haggerty, whose district includes most of Fremont, as well as Pleasanton and Livermore. "Knowing there are vultures out there, I want to do what I can to keep the A's in Alameda County."
Wolff was traveling Thursday and did not return phone calls, but he did indicate he was interested in sitting down with the supervisor, Haggerty said.
That certainly gets the ball rolling. The article notes that not only Warm Springs ballpark site is possible, but there may be opportunities at Pacific Commons, a new shopping center that opened last year. Pacific Commons is 2 miles west of the planned BART station, on the other side of I-880. I'll post pictures of both later today and post a Fremont photo overview.
The news is somewhat serendipitous, because I had no knowledge of the officials' efforts when I fired off an e-mail to Fremont's planning department yesterday. I asked about NUMMI, which owns much of the Warm Springs site. NUMMI's current plans are to build a warehousing and distribution facility to facilitate "just in time" delivery of auto components, though that certainly could change if the aforementioned officials got involved.
Updating my previous post on Warm Springs, NUMMI (as per the Warm Springs Specific Plan) has expressed its desire for Fremont to limit the types of development in allows in the area surrounding the plant. This could actually prove beneficial for ballpark supporters, as they also suggested to the City of Fremont that development plans shouldn't have housing built immediately north of the NUMMI plant, as residents may not enjoy living next to a 24/7-operating heavy industrial site with hundreds of trucks entering and leaving on a regular basis.
Pacific Commons is another matter. While there land there is vast and ripe for development, it's not within walking distance of the planned BART station, which is scheduled for completion sometime in 2010.
Update (8:30 AM): I called NUMMI this morning for more on the warehousing/distribution center. No official comment as of yet, perhaps none until late in the day or Monday.
3 comments:
If people complain now about there being nothing to do around the Coliseum before and after A's games, just wait until they experience Fremont. And we're talking the backwaters of Fremont down by the Nummi plant. There is absolutely nothing around there.
If a Bart station and a ballpark were built in the area couldn't some pubs & restaurants be built nearby? I'm wondering if there is room for such a thing. Then again, Fruitvale Bart didn't have much room either, so they built in their parking lot and constructed a multi-level parking garage in another lot to make up for the spaces lost.
It's different with the Warm Springs Site. I took pictures of it today and realized that if someone had blindfolded me and dropped me off there, and I hadn't already been familiar with the place, I'd think I was in Tracy or Stockton. Nevertheless, there is development planned for the area, though I doubt it will be of significant density or high traffic/use.
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