Oakland officials discuss new Raiders stadium with developer

An aerial view of the McAfee Coliseum, home of the Raiders and Athletics on 12/6/05 in Oakland, Calif. An aerial view of the McAfee Coliseum, home of the Raiders and Athletics on 12/6/05 in Oakland, Calif. Photo: Paul Chinn, The Chronicle Photo: Paul Chinn, The Chronicle Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close Oakland officials discuss new Raiders stadium with developer 1 / 1 Back to Gallery

Oakland officials on Thursday met to discuss a Raiders stadium proposal by San Diego developer Floyd Kephart.

Before submitting plans to finance the $1 billion-plus stadium he proposed in a development of an 800-acre swath of land around O.Co Coliseum, Kephart asked Oakland and Alameda County to finance an estimated $100 million to $140 million in infrastructure improvements.

Some community organizations balked at the figure, arguing that the public funds should instead be used to fill potholes and clean up the blighted East Oakland neighborhoods that surround the coliseum.

The council met in closed session.

On Wednesday, activists from the Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment Alliance of Californians rallied at 92nd Avenue and E. Street to decry Kephart’s “Coliseum City” project.

Other activists from the community group Oakland United Coalition sent a letter to the City Council on Tuesday, demanding that Kephart guarantee local jobs, affordable housing, and public services on his end of the deal.

But in an interview with The Chronicle, Councilwoman Rebecca Kaplan — who serves on the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum Authority — defended Kephart’s request to be freed from obligations to upgrade utilities and realign roads.

“Even if all the sports teams and Floyd Kephart disappear, we should still develop that site,” Kaplan said, adding that transit-oriented development — such as a massive sports complex, convention center, or shopping mall abutting the Coliseum BART station — will create jobs, boost the economy, and encourage people to use public transportation.

“Whether it’s going to be a shopping mall, a ballpark, or a concert (venue), the degree to which we can have future development connected to transit will have a huge impact on whether we can reduce our oil dependence to the degree that we need to,” Kaplan said.

She believes the city and county should apply for state and federal grants to bankroll the project, modeling it after the oft-touted transit village at Fruitvale BART station.

But Kaplan also cautioned that Oakland’s leaders shouldn’t repeat the Mt. Davis deal of 1995, when the city and county agreed to pay millions in costly Coliseum renovations to lure the Raiders back to Oakland — on the hope that ticket sale revenues would pay for the debt.

Both the city and county are still paying millions a year for that deal, and the debt won’t be paid off until 2026.

Rachel Swan is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. E-mail: rswan@sfchronicle.com

Twitter: @rachelswan