PHOENIX - A San Francisco arena for the National Basketball Association's Golden State Warriors remained on track after a San Francisco Superior Court upheld its environmental review, though the project faces continued appeals and resistance.
The proposed Chase Center arena, which would allow the Warriors to move to San Francisco from Oakland, is privately funded but city leaders have touted the benefits it would bring in tax revenue. The lawsuit challenging the environmental review, filed early this year, charges that city officials violated the California Environmental Quality Act by not properly considering alternative locations and failing to adequately address the project's environmental impacts, such as traffic, air quality, and noise. The suit was initiated by the Mission Bay Alliance, a group that says it is concerned how the project will affect the University of California San Francisco medical campus in the area, as well as the overall quality of life in the neighborhood.
A Superior Court judge sided with the city July 18. San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee called it "an important milestone in the process of bringing the Golden State Warriors back to San Francisco and to building a state-of-the-art entertainment venue the entire San Francisco Bay Area can be proud of."
The city "left no stone unturned" in its environmental impact report, Lee said.
"This decision brings us a huge step closer to building a new state-of-the-art sports and entertainment venue, which will add needed vitality to the Mission Bay neighborhood and serve the entire Bay Area extremely well," Warriors President and chief operating officer Rick Welts said in a statement. "We look forward to breaking ground soon."
The Mission Bay Alliance appealed the ruling to a three-judge panel at the California Court of Appeal. The judges will evaluate the environmental review, rather than simply determine whether the trial court ruling was correct or not.
"Wherever a new arena is to be built, full compliance with law is essential to protect Mission Bay and all of San Francisco, said Osha Meserve, an environmental attorney representing the alliance. "There is no excuse for shortcuts."
The Court of Appeals generally hears matters brought before it within a few months, but it depends on the workload of the court.
