The Golden State Warriors have received a boost in their efforts to build the Chase Center in Mission Bay, as a recent court case ended in their favor.
For more than a year, the proposed arena has been at the center of legal debate. The Mission Bay Alliance is looking to stop the Chase Center from being built, claiming that traffic generated by the arena will affect access to the nearby University of California San Francisco Medical Center and that the site could be utilized for a greater neighborhood benefit.
This particular case involved a challenge from the Mission Bay Alliance, as well as Save Muni, over the environmental review process. While the Alliance contended that the City of San Francisco had conducted an inadequate and expedited review of the project, the San Francisco Superior Court court ruled in favor of the Warriors and San Francisco’s Commission on Community Investment and Infrastructure, finding that the study followed proper procedure.
“We’re very pleased by the court’s ruling,” Warriors president and COO Rick Wells said in a press statement. “We engaged in an extensive public planning process and we were approved by every board, agency and regulatory body we went before. Now our project has been upheld by the court. 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. We look forward to breaking ground soon.”
While the result is a major win for the Warriors and the Chase Center, another legal challenge from the Mission Bay Alliance is still pending. This case, filed in Alameda County, contends that an agreement between the Warriors and UCSF should be nullified. More from SFGate.com:
That deal called for a $10 million Mission Bay Transportation Improvement Fund, which will be dedicated to controlling the flow of traffic in the neighborhood, particularly during evening arena events.
The plan calls for deploying dozens of traffic control officers along with traffic lanes dedicated to vehicles bound for the UCSF Medical Center. In addition, should traffic jams around the hospital become a problem, the Warriors have agreed to hold no more than 12 events a year at the same time as Giants games at nearby AT&T Park.
The Mission Bay Alliance argues that the UCSF chancellor overstepped his authority in reaching such an agreement without approval from University of California regents. That lawsuit remains to be decided.
City Attorney Dennis Herrera said every aspect of the Chase Center has “has been thoroughly scrutinized under the law, and it has won overwhelming support every step of the way, from all parts of San Francisco — including its neighbors.”
“I hope that the decision becomes final soon, so that the much-awaited construction of the project can begin,” he said.
Barring any further delays, the Warriors anticipate that the Chase Center will open in 2019.
