Earthquakes looking for Exclusive Right to Negotiate with San Jose

Lew Wolff's desire to bring the Earthquakes back to San Jose might take a big step forward on June 12 when the city council will vote on a "non-binding memorandum of understanding that would give the city and Wolff's development group until Sept. 15 to hammer out an agreement." This exclusive right to negotiate would involve the idea of rezoning industrial land for residential purposes in order to pay for the $80 million stadium.

The stadium site is located out by the airport and would sit on land owned by the city. The land would be leased to the Earthquakes with Wolff's group guaranteed to cover the public's $7.5 million annual debt service on the property.

The stadium would not use up the entire 75 acres of land the city owns in the area, however building residential homes at the location is not an option due to contamination of the land with toxic substances. Although "it has been cleaned up and no further treatment is required for certain uses, housing and schools cannot be constructed there."

That's reassuring.