Oakley leaders reject FC Cincinnati stadium plan on eve of Cincinnati City Council's vote

The Oakley Community Council on Sunday night rejected Cincinnati Mayor John Cranley's stadium funding plan on the eve of City Council's vote on a deal calling for a new soccer-specific venue to be built in the East Side neighborhood.

Will the community council's unanimous vote kill the deal? It already was unclear whether it had enough votes to pass, and the community council's decision could prompt Cranley to pull it off Monday's agenda.

For now, City Council's budget committee is set to meet at 11 a.m. to vote on a plan to spend $37 million in public money on stadium-related infrastructure.

Politics Extra: FC Cincinnati's stadium plan cloaked in secrecy

Futbol Club Cincinnati wants to build a 21,000-seat stadium in Oakley Station, part of an effort to bolster the team's Major League Soccer expansion bid. Regardless of how Monday's vote goes, Oakley leaders aren't happy about the lack of public input on the stadium plan.

In passing a resolution, the community council expressed concerns about the stadium potentially using up all of the area's tax-increment financing money and thus keeping it from going to other projects in the thriving Oakley Station development.

"The OCC Board believes that this proposal could be detrimental to the long-term development needs of Oakley," community council President Sean Fausto said in a statement Sunday. "Current development projects within Oakley have requested access to these same TIF funds, including one project co-sponsored by the city and the Oakley Community Council."

Cranley's plan calls for money from surrounding tax increment financing (TIF) districts in Oakley to be redirected to the stadium infrastructure, The Enquirer reported Nov. 17. But the proposed 16-acre site does not actually fall in these districts. This is expected to provide $9.7 million to help build streets, parking, sidewalks and sewers around a new stadium.

More: 3 questions about Monday's stadium vote

The OCC Board voted Nov. 7 to support a stadium vision presented by FC Cincinnati President Jeff Berding, but Fausto said that vision "did not include, and the OCC Board neither discussed nor took action with regards to, any details of the financing for the FC Cincinnati stadium or the public infrastructure improvements."

FC Cincinnati plans to pay $200 million to build the stadium structure itself. The club has been seeking between $70 million and $75 million in public money for infrastructure to support the stadium.

The community council's vote earlier this month, Fausto said, "was not a green light for the city and FC Cincinnati to move forward, but rather was a yellow light to proceed, subject to continuing discussion with the entire community."

It remains unclear what council will do. It needs five votes to pass, but Amy Murray and Kevin Flynn have been the only members on council to publicly say they're voting for it. Councilmen P.G. Sittenfeld and Chris Seelbach have been on record as saying they're opposed to the plan. Everyone else is either undecided or hasn't publicly discussed their position.

Enquirer political columnist Jason Williams contributed.