Council Extends Deadline for Oakland to File Blair Park Lawsuit

The Piedmont City Council Tuesday night approved a "tolling agreement" with the City of Oakland, extending the deadline for Oakland to file suit over the Blair Park sports field environmental impact report until close of business on Jan. 18, 2012.

The previous legal deadline was Jan. 9.

Council members said they "wish to work with Oakland" by giving that city's officials additional time to look at environmental data on the Blair Park proposal, according to City Manager Geoffrey Grote.

The action was announced following a closed session of the council. The three council members present (Mayor Dean Barbieri, Jeff Wieler and Garrett Keating) voted unanimously to approved the agreement.

Oakland City Council members voted 8-0 on Dec. 20 to direct Oakland City Attorney Barbara Parker to file suit on Jan. 9 if the two cities could not agree to extend the deadline.

Piedmont's council gave the go-ahead to the privately financed $6 million-plus Blair Park project at its Dec. 5-6 meeting, including approval of an addendum to the project's final Environmental Impact Report (EIR).

It's the approval of the addendum, rather than a requirement for a new or supplemental EIR, that has been Oakland's main target. Oakland officials have said that an addendum was not sufficient to meet the standards of the California Environemental Quality Act.

Under state law, Oakland had 30 days from the filing of Piedmont's notice of determination on the EIR addendum with Alameda County to initiate litigation unless both cities agreed to an extension.

For more information and previous articles about the sports field project, see our Blair Park page.