The lawsuit, filed in Santa Clara County Superior Court, takes issue with the environmental impact report on the planned stadium for the 49ers. Cedar Fair Entertainment, owners of Great America, say the report did not address the big issues such as the traffic and the parking needs that 68,000 49er fans would bring to the area on game days.
"The challenge for the EIR is not unexpected, Monday would have been the final day that they could have filed such a lawsuit, but we are just looking forward to the June 8 vote with the city of Santa Clara voters," said Santa Clara Dep. City Mgr Carol McCarthy.
Indeed, with or without the lawsuit, the city of Santa Clara voters will cast their ballots on June 8 on the $937 million stadium issue -- a stadium scheduled to be open for the 2014 season. But this lawsuit says the city of Santa Clara was so anxious to get the 49ers set up in their city -- it did an end run around the proper approach to environmental issues. City officials said while this was a difficult project -- they got it right.
"This particular project is different then many projects -- in that its 68,500 people in a short period of time in one location and the plan always envisioned offsite parking. So the EIR addresses that and we think it is a very good EIR and we think it will stand," said McCarthy.
The lawsuit specifically mentions the negative impact the stadium would have on Great America -- claiming the roadways near the stadium would be clogged for potential visitors to the theme park.
A spokesperson for Cedar Fair said that she looks forward to continuing negotiations with the city and the 49ers and hopes to resolve differences.
