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Potential Hazard May Complicate A's Stadium Plan

No Viable Safety Plan In Place
By Teresa Garcia

Feb. 27 - KGO - There may be a hitch in the Oakland A's plan to build a new stadium in Fremont. Officials want the team to decide what to do about a potential safety hazard located right across the street from the proposed stadium site.

Oakland A's owner Lew Wolff has a grand idea, to move the team to Fremont, into a new stadium, with a ball park village that includes housing and retail development.

Most of it would sit on a 143-acre parcel of land Wolff intends to buy from Cisco Systems, near Interstate 880 and Auto Mall Parkway.

But safety considerations have to be made about the specialty gas company doing business since 1985, just across the street from the envisioned ball park.

Fremont officials started discussing the hazard issue last year and have advised Wolff that he either needs to buy the Scott gas parcel and relocate the plant, or find a way to protect fans.

In an accident, the plant could potentially leak toxic gases such as arsine or ammonia, and drift over a nearby, open-air stadium filled with 32,000 people.

Some of the newer, nearby retail stores already have safety features in place. In case of an accident, a button is pushed to shut down their ventilation systems.

But the Fremont Fire Department says it has no viable plan how to deal with such a catastrophe at the ball park, because there is no precise layout yet.

The A's have yet to submit a development proposal.