Warriors San Francisco Stadium Plan Gets Boost From Sacramento Lawmakers
SACRAMENTO (CBS SF) -- On the same day the Golden State Warriors were lighting up Oakland with an NBA Championship parade, lawmakers in Sacramento were finalizing the state's budget, including an environmental law exemption for the planned Warriors stadium at San Francisco's Mission Bay.
"It saves them some time in court," State Senator Mark Leno said.
Leno talked about it on KPIX 5 Sunday Morning.
"This is for environmentally friendly projects that will create over 100-million dollars of economic benefit, creating more jobs," Leno said.
The new provision gives the Warriors an extra year to work on their environmental impact report.
The coalition against the Warriors stadium, The Mission Bay Alliance, is crying foul.
"We think that's sad and dangerous that they're trying to skirt these rules at the expense of the public and the environment," Sam Singer of the Mission Bay Alliance said.
But Leno sees it as rewarding the Warriors for being thorough, "Because the warriors realized that they had to take more time with the community because they've got to face the voters because of Prop B, that they couldn't finish the certification of their EIR, their environmental impact report."
The Warriors were a little busy this year, but now it's game on on a different kind of court.
"We've got very good attorneys, we've got a lot of people joining our side because they don't want the Warriors stadium across from a major American hospital," Singer said
There's a public hearing on the San Francisco stadium plan on June 30th. The public comment period on the stadium ends on July 20th.