Oakland To Drop Lawsuit Against County Over Coliseum Sale

The Oakland City Council has directed the city attorney to "'immediately drop' the city's lawsuit against Alameda County that has prevented the county from selling its half of the Coliseum site" to the A's, according to Sarah Ravani of the S.F. CHRONICLE. The City Council made the decision yesterday during a "special closed meeting." The Council also "directed the issuance of a Surplus Lands Act notice on the Coliseum site." The Surplus Lands Act is a California law that "requires publicly owned surplus lands to be considered for affordable housing before the lands are sold or leased." The Council last week also had directed City Attorney Barbara Parker to "drop the suit." Some members said that they were "surprised when she filed a request Friday to extend an injunction in the case clocking the county's sale." Yesterday's announcement "bookends a nearly two-month saga between the city and the A's over the county's decision to sell its share of the Coliseum." On Friday, the city attorney "filed a request to extend the temporary injunction that stopped Alameda County from moving forward with its sale of the Coliseum land to the A's" for $85M -- a move that "surprised the A's as it did when the city initially requested the injunction" (S.F. CHRONICLE, 11/14).