Almost three months ago, around the end of May, the city of San Francisco began a process to clear the way for the Golden State Warriors’ new bay front arena. Led by Mayor Ed Lee and the Port of San Francisco, a bill, Assembly Bill 1273, was drafted to work around other interests from the broader Bay Area.
Before that bill arrived in front of the California State Senate in June, the bill had already cleared the State Assembly by a vote of 50-9, and then passed through a Senate Committee 7-0. The legislation, however, has little to do with the Warriors.
Assembly member Bill Ting introduced the bill in order to speed up the Warriors’ go-ahead process to start building. It would confirm that the arena project meets all the construction standards set by the Bay Conservation and Development Commission for a waterfront project and shift the decision-making to the port of San Francisco.
The Senate Appropriations Committee will decide in August whether the Warriors proposed project meets proper public trust use. The Warriors helped their case with the addition of a cruise ship terminal to their plans earlier this year, which can be used to help the city handle additional cruise ship traffic when necessary.
Team spokesman for the project, P.J. Johnston, fully expects that the measure will pass through the State Senate shortly after the August vote. He says the project features as much or more public and maritime use –requirements of waterfront projects – as any previously approved construction on the site.
The updated plan calls for more than half (53 percent) of the site to be open space and includes retail and office plots. The project also includes a new San Francisco Fire Department fireboat station. The existing station, just north of the Bay Bridge, is crumbling into the bay, and like Piers 30 and 32, the area is in need of renovation.
The Warriors plan would house a two-boat station less than a quarter-mile from the current location. What Johnston is more concerned about is the environmental process, which he expects will take the largest amount of time to complete. Johnston said that this could end up being the biggest roadblock to a 2017 completion date:
“That is probably the part of this that presents the most threat to any specific timeline because it doesn’t have to be a big fight about anything. It could merely be that the data hasn’t come back from the third-party transportation consultant or the city’s lead planner went out on maternity leave. That’s exactly the kind of stuff that happens, and when you lose a month here or there, it adds up.”
The Environmental Impact Report (EIR) includes traffic and is not strictly limited to pollution and impact on wildlife. Upon completion of the legislative process, another hurdle presents itself. California law allows for numerous legal challenges to any EIR, as Johnston explained.
Their goal is get the legislation passed so that they can address those challenges and begin construction. From the start, the Warriors’ front office has admitted that their timeline is a swift one. Bringing the franchise to a new arena was one of the first issues addressed when Joe Lacob and Peter Guber took over, and it’s an incredibly important step for a team they’re looking to move into a new era:
“Joe and Peter made clear from the beginning: the Warriors are playing on the oldest home court in the NBA. They want to bring this team into the 21st Century as a winner and as a successful franchise all around.”
They’re being no less ambitious with their San Francisco relocation than they’ve been in other aspects of team management, and they, as well as Johnston, admit to as much:
“We always said we had an aggressive schedule and an aggressive timeline… Nothing has set us off course that prevents us from [reaching] our 2017 target date. It is complicated, there’s no doubt about that, but we’ve cleared all the hurdles that we’ve come to thus far.”
Despite reports to the contrary, the Warriors believe they are on target. As they’ve shown, there’s little reason to doubt that the Warriors can accomplish their goal. A battle much different than the one they fought to become contenders last season lays ahead. However, as Johnston made clear, this group does not lack for money or resolve, and still fully believes the project can be completed in time for opening night in 2017.
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