OAKLAND — The Alameda County Board of Supervisors may have thrown a wrench into the Oakland A’s plan to build a waterfront ballpark by declaring it’s not ready to accept a funding plan the team says is key to making the project happen.
Following a long and contentious meeting Tuesday, the supervisors said they won’t even schedule a vote until September on Oakland’s request that the county support the idea of forming a tax district to finance the infrastructure needed for a ballpark and the mixed-use development that eventually will surround it.
Oakland officials asked the supervisors to sign off by the end of this month on creating a tax district because the City Council on July 20 is scheduled to discuss the A’s plan to build the ballpark at the Port of Oakland’s Howard Terminal site.
The A’s want Oakland to create two tax districts, including one to pay for soil cleanup, seismic work, utilities, sidewalks, streets and other improvements needed to prepare the Howard Terminal site for their proposed $12 billion development, which in addition to a 35,000-seat ballpark includes 3,000 housing units, hundreds of hotel rooms, a performing arts center and commercial or retail space.
The other tax district, which the county isn’t being asked to support, would pay for overpasses or underground tunnels, bicycle lanes, sidewalks, fences and intersections needed to help fans cross heavy railroad tracks to reach the ballpark.
Land owners in those districts would pay for the improvements through their property taxes.
While the supervisors did not reject Oakland’s request to contribute its share of property taxes that would be collected from the Howard Terminal financing district for the ballpark preparation work and even expressed some optimism about the project, their refusal to vote now could complicate matters for the council at its July 20 meeting.
The A’s have demanded the council approve a non-binding term sheet at that meeting before taking a summer recess to signal the city’s commitment to continue negotiating over the ballpark plan. A’s president Dave Kaval has said if the team does not secure approvals for the project by the end of this year, it’ll leave Oakland.
But county supervisors sharply rebuked the city for not inviting them to the discussion sooner, noting that two weeks is not enough time to analyze the complicated financing plan.
After years of not being “brought to the table,” board Chairman Keith Carson said, “now we’re being told to decide in 20 days.” In a letter late last month, City Administrator Ed Reiskin asked the county to opt into the tax district by the end of June.
“Without the County’s participation, the State, the County and the City is very likely to lose all ballpark related tax revenues, as Major League Baseball has directed the A’s to commence relocation talks out of state,” Reiskin wrote.
When so-called “enhanced infrastructure financing districts” are formed, properties within them are assessed, and the tax money from annual increases in their value is funneled directly into project-related uses and affordable housing instead of being distributed entirely to local governments and special districts.
Oakland’s consultant has estimated that the county could receive almost $17 million annually in property taxes over the next 45 years from the Howard Terminal financing district and keep about $6.3 million of it while forking over the rest for infrastructure work.
The A’s contend their project will spark the economic development that creates tax growth that otherwise wouldn’t exist.
Assistant City Administrator Betsy Lake said at Tuesday’s board meeting that may be true about the Howard Terminal financing district it’s asking the county to bless. But creating a second tax district as suggested by the A’s for a mile-and-a-half section of Jack London Square area doesn’t seem to be “fiscally responsible,” she said, in the first public admission that the city may choose to create only one district.
Because the Jack London Square waterfront area is already full of commercial and residential real estate, it’s “unknowable” whether any growth in property value there could be attributed directly to the ballpark development, added Molly Maybrun, a project manager for the city who’s been involved in the negotiations. She said at least some additional taxes would be generated “even in the absence of this project.”
Asked to comment about the county supervisors’ refusal to support the Howard Terminal tax district for now, Justin Berton, Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf’s spokesman, said in a written statement :
“Oakland left last night’s meeting encouraged that we’re aligned to keep the A’s rooted in Oakland. We’re grateful the Board engaged the public in a robust, transparent discussion on what will become a regional asset for generations to come. We support the Supervisors’ direction to conduct their own independent financial analysis, and we will continue to work with all of our regional partners to build a waterfront ballpark that includes new public parks and affordable housing.”
Through a spokesperson, A’s president Kaval declined to comment about the supervisors’ decision to hold off until this fall.
