Fastball: California taking swing at waterfront stadium

Gov. Jerry Brown signs bill that could speed up plans to build a new Oakland Athletics ballpark at Howard Terminal.    The Oakland Athletics will play the New York Yankees in New York Wednesday in a wild card game to determine which of them will participate in the American League Division Series.
   Over the weekend a different wild card — long delays in obtaining environmental approvals — was eliminated in the team’s search for a possible future home at the Port of Oakland.
   Howard Terminal, formerly used by Matson and now used for truck parking and container storage, has been proposed as the possible new A’s home. (It’s also possible a new stadium might be built near the team’s existing home at the Oakland Colesium.)
   On Sunday Gov. Jerry Brown signed a bill that establishes special procedures for review of a ballpark and mixed use development at the Howard Terminal under the California Environmental Quality Act and an expedited 270-day judicial review.
   The San Francisco Chronicle said the law “will prevent environmental complaints from significantly stalling the construction of a new ballpark.”
   While the site is close to the headquarters of the port authority and the area it has redeveloped called Jack London Square, the site of the proposed terminal also is flanked by Schnitzer Steel’s terminal used to load scrap steel aboard ships.
   Port of Oakland commissioners in April approved a one-year agreement authorizing talks with the baseball club about Howard Terminal as a potential stadium site.