The Draft EIR was distributed in numerous pieces. The first file contains the body of the document. The appendices are in a separate file, as is the Economic Impact Report. I'm still looking for the figures document, which contains various graphical detail. I've listed links for the Final EIR (scanned, not searchable), which is essentially the Draft EIR with some changes and additional technical information. All of the files are PDF, compressed in .ZIP format.
Draft EIR
Final EIR (most of it scanned, not searchable)
- EIR (essentially the Draft EIR)
- First Amendment
- General Correspondence
- Technical Reports
- Recirculated Cultural Resources document
- Approval (Certification)
It's important to note that this EIR only covered a ballpark and an associated parking garage nearby. No ancillary development was considered, and the ballpark concept was a fairly generic, 45,000-seat footprint. The Cisco Field concept is at least 10,000 seats smaller. While the EIR was certified almost two years ago, it faced staunch NIMBY opposition from the surrounding area. Appendix B in the Draft EIR has 20 pages of generally negative comments about the concept - and that doesn't include all of the comments taken during the several public outreach sessions. For a chronology of the EIR process, check out this link. From the Notice of Preparation to Certification, the process was 15 months long.
Tomorrow I'll give my current take on San Jose.
4 comments:
Some food for thought on San Jose. "No ancillary development was considered" in SJ ballpark EIR because it was already taken care of in the Diridon/Arena Strategic Plan of 2003 (am I right R.M.?).
Would the NIMBY's cease their opposition, or fall in numbers, knowing that a potential SJ ballpark had a capacity of 32,000 vs. 45,000? 13,000 less fans makes a huge difference in terms of traffic and noise. Also, BART and high-speed rail are now slated to be part of the mix in terms of getting people in/out of the area. As a side note, downtown SJ regularly get's 30-35,000 people daily during Summertime festivals (ie Jazz Festival), with absolutely no cries from surrounding area's/neighbors.
Much of the ballpark EIR negativity came from Earthquakes fans who wanted the city to focus on building a soccer stadium rather than pursue the A's/Diridon Ballpark. Well, they now have their team and temp. SSS at SCU; with future FMC SSS to follow. The ballpark was also then viewed as Ron Gonzales' project; unpopular former SJ mayor whom Lew Wolff despised.
At what point (if ever) does Lew Wolff, John Fisher, Tom McEnery, City of SJ, and Bud Selig approach Bill Neukom/Giants and say "Enough! Fremont's presenting to many problems and I have what I want in San Jose...can we go another 11 miles south for some compensation? You want Sabathia, don't yah?"
Looking forward to your San Jose post R.M.
You're killing me with the Sabathia stuff, T.
The Diridon/Arena Plan has been considered out-of-date for a while. The city has been waiting to update it until the outcomes of Measure B and perhaps the Prop 1A. Some of the land in question will undergo a nasty cut-and-cover operation to build the Diridon BART station, so the area really wouldn't be ready for development until after BART construction was complete.
You're right about the Quakes fans, remember they had their team stolen from them Bob Irsay style. Much of their frustration stemmed from what they perceived as the city's misplaced focus.
BART excavation along Santa Clara Street could coincide concurrently with adjoining Ballpark excavation which will have to be possibly as deep as 60' to 75' below street level to accommodate lower field level and footings for ballpark footings.
http://www.mercurynews.com/sports/ci_11189971
I'll be interested to see ML's take on San Jose--the Diridon site has all the elements that you would want for a ballpark---but as I recall there was a utility substation that would have to be moved prior to ballpark construction--maybe this would happen anyway with the bullet train development--
I had heard that SJ was also considering the fairgrounds as a potential site---from my perspective this would be no better than a suburban Fremont site-
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