Wednesday, November 30, 2016
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C.A. Approves EIR for Arena to House Warriors
By a MetNews Staff Writer
The First District Court of Appeal yesterday gave the go-ahead for the long-planned construction in San Francisco of a 488,000-square-foot multipurpose event center to house the Golden State Warriors basketball team, as well as the erection of adjacent structures, with 3.2 acres of open space.
Div. Three, in an opinion by Justice Stuart R. Pollak, affirmed the trial court’s denial of two petitions challenging the certification of the environmental impact report and issuance of permits.
The proposed project is slated to be built on an 11-acre site in the Mission Bay South area. Games will be played in a 18,064-seat arena, under the plans, and there will be two 11-story office and retail buildings.
The final supplemental environmental impact report (“FSEIR”) in issue was certified by the city-county’s Office of Community Investment and Infrastructure, and certification was approved by the Board of Supervisors on Dec. 8, 2015. The FSEIR takes into account the numerous changes in the area since an FSEIR was formulated in 1998.
The San Francisco Superior Court on July 18 issued a 54-page order, denying petitions for a writ of mandate challenging the current FSEIR.
Pollak wrote:
“We have carefully considered each of plaintiffs’ contentions raised on appeal. Although in some instances defendants’ analysis of potential environmental impacts might have been expanded, as is commonly the case, in general the record reflects a thorough and exhaustive study of all environmental impacts to be anticipated that were not considered in the 1998 FSEIR, and identification of numerous mitigation measures to lessen adverse impacts to the extent feasible. We conclude there is no merit to plaintiffs’ objections to the sufficiency of the city’s environmental analysis and its approval of the proposed project.”
The case is Mission Bay Alliance v. Office of Community Investment, A148865.
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