Anti-ballpark group sues city of San Jose

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"Stand for San Jose," a coalition group opposed to the Oakland A's moving to the South Bay, filed a lawsuit against the City of San Jose Friday.

The group, which is financially supported by the San Jose Giants (San Francisco's Single-A affiliate), submitted a 28-page suit to the Santa Clara County Superior Court claiming most notably both the failure to perform a proper environmental review of the land that is committed to the A's and a violation of citizen's rights when the city entered a binding agreement to sell land to A's owner Lew Wolff at a discounted rate without a public vote.

"In the midst of its 11th consecutive budget deficit, San Jose politicians rushed to sell prime downtown land for only 6.9 million, even though it was acquired for 25 million and is currently appraised at approximately 14 million, Stand for San Jose said in a statement to the AP.

The San Jose City Council agreed on a two-year land-purchase option that cost the A's 50,000 on Nov. 8, engaging a 30-day window for potential law suits to be filed. Stand for San Jose, represented by San Francisco attorney Ronald Van Buskirk, filed theirs on the 24th day of that window.

The concerned citizens are asking that the "city comply with the law by allowing the community to thoroughly study and understand the project's impacts and express its opinion in a public vote."

Despite the recent involvement of A's GM Billy Beane and multiple implications that it was impending, the A's are still waiting for MLB to decide whether or not to grant the Oakland franchise permission to relocate south to territory that the Giants have rights over.

Wolff already has an architect and says obtaining the building permits would take nine months and the ballpark construction would take two years.

Nate Stuhlbarg is a web producer at CSNBayArea.com. Follow him on Twitter @StuhlbargCSN.The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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