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23 December 2008

Mayor Wasserman steps in

In an effort to resolve the impasse between the A's and the big box triumvirate of Costco, Lowe's, and Kohl's, Fremont Mayor Bob Wasserman spoke to the retailers last week. The A's were not directly involved in the discussions. Via Matthew Artz in the Argus's Tri City Beat blog:
Wasserman said he and ProLogis talked about a couple of proposals to put the stadium a little further from the stores, one idea would be to put it closer to Interstate 880, and the other further south from the stores, which, admittedly wouldn’t have the best freeway access.
The "closer to 880" option may be the simplest since it involves land the A's already own, particularly the 8-acre concrete plant next to the freeway. Then they'd have to redesign the village and residential areas to work with the new ballpark site. Integration of the village and the ballpark wouldn't be as good because the ballpark can't face west, which would be the best direction to have the ballpark face into the village as it does in the original plan.

Pushing the ballpark to the southern edge of the project area is likely a nonstarter for environmental reasons. The combination of light, noise, and a heavy supply of congealed nacho cheese sauce don't make for a healthy environment for all of the critters in the wetland preserve next door.

14 comments:

Jeffrey said...

SO assuming they move it closer to 880... EIR is extended by, 2 months, 6 months, 2 years, 6 years? I am asking, not being facetious.

Marine Layer said...

I'm guessing several months. A new Notice of Preparation would be required, or so I'm told.

Jeffrey said...

NOP is 30 days right?

And there would be new info required to be in the NOP, so 3-6 months sound like a fair estimate?

chris said...

Is the "closer to 880" site going to have BART, light rail access? Where is the exact location?

chris said...

When they say "closer to the 880", does that mean a totally different location away from the diridon station. I would be disappointed if I couldn't take BART or light rail to the ball game.

Marine Layer said...

Jeffrey - Yes.

Chris - You may have the San Jose and Fremont sites mixed up. This is about the Fremont plan. Closer to 880 is still on the other side of the freeway from BART.

Anonymous said...

I hope the baseball village proposal does go through. It will be a nice “downtown” area for the city of Fremont. When I grew up in Fremont in the early 90’s, there was virtually nothing to do in Fremont besides the Newpark Mall and Fremont Hub. I would like to return to Fremont and see this downtown/baseball village environment in a few years.

NoAsWS said...

Dave, look like there is no “downtown” or “village” now. The A’s plan to build the stadium first and leave the village behind. Without the “Santana Row”, it will be just like another Oakland Coliseum (maybe worse;-(.

The real estate and economy is very bad now. The stock price of Prologis (PLD, the developer in Pacific Commons) went from $60+ to $2+ in 6 months. And Wolff is a big real estate developer. His wealth must be shrinking a lot recently.

Jeffrey said...

noa's... i think you got the details a bit wrong here.

If the stadium was built at warm springs, no santana row.

If the stadium was built at Pacific COmmons, as dave advocates, there would still be a santana row, just not the larger residential development for the time being.

Anonymous said...

wow, looks like fremont has just a few problems, eh? who could have imagined?????

- sactodavey

Anonymous said...

Jeffrey-

Not sure what your thinking---who in their right mind would be building retail today---not to mention that Santana Row has Retail on the ground floor of the condo towers---so not sure how you separate the two---As NOA suggests-if Fremont moves forward it is a stadium only---look at the Google map for Anaheim, Arlington, and Oakland and you get the idea of what you will have in Fremont-

It is time for Wolff to quit wasting time in Fremont. Go to San Jose that already has a downtown,transit and atmosphere---give the team a heart and soul and they will be incredibly successful--just like the Sharks are in San Jose--thru both good times as well as lean years.

FC said...

I'm not really familiar with Fremont, but I have driven around the PC site a few time just to get the lay of the land. I don't understand how moving the ballpark village closer to 880 will make a difference. Wouldn't a large portion of the vehicles coming to the ballpark still have to use Auto Mall Parkway?

Anonymous said...

Moving the stadium to the former Christy Concrete site at PC won't work. That site is wedged between industrial parks to north and south and the freeway on it's east border. The batter would now be looking right into the sun if they still want an open outfield area flowing into a large shopping /public gathering plaza .Plus the site is only an extra block further south from the big box stores and traffic flow would be identical - so why bother .It also takes away the whole idea of possibly desirable higher end condos surrounding ballpark with their own rooftop grand stands ala Wrigley Field.
The original site layout is the best . It's far cheaper/simpler for the LW group to pay for game day parking lot control at the PC retailers .

Anonymous said...

The latest article on Fremont:

http://www.fremontbulletin.com/ci_11415598?source=most_viewed