Governor Jerry Brown Fast-Tracks Environmental Review For Warriors Planned San Francisco Arena
SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS) – The environmental review process for the proposed new arena for the Golden State Warriors in San Francisco's Mission Bay neighborhood has been expedited by California Governor Jerry Brown.
According to Phil Matier, Brown's office quietly certified that the Warriors arena has met the environmental benchmarks it needs to be exempted from open-ended legal challenges.
Matier said the move takes a lot of the roadblocks out of big projects in the state. Many planned projects get tied up in court for years, while people are questioning the environmental report.
The move by Governor Brown means courts would have just 290 days to rule on any lawsuit contesting the proposed arena's environmental impact report. That includes whether the project has taken the adequate steps to deal with parking and traffic.
The parking and traffic issues have been a bone of contention for the Mission Bay Alliance, a group that is opposed to the new arena. They said it would be a traffic nightmare and also greatly affect hospital service at the UCSF Medical Center.
This is just one of a handful of projects granted a fast-track review under AB900, a 2011 state law meant to streamline environmental reviews of key construction projects.
