San Francisco Supervisors certify EIR, greenlight Warriors arena

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- The NBA Champion Golden State Warriors hope to leave Oracle Arena in time for tip off in San Francisco in 2018. Tuesday night the San Francisco supervisors debated whether to move forward with the plan, despite the objections of opponents who raised environmental concerns.

In the end, the supervisors voted unanimously to certify the EIR and move ahead with the project.

Still, there is a threatened lawsuit that may call for a time out.

Warriors fans in San Francisco are fired up about the plan to relocate the arena to Mission Bay. The last major step in the city approval process went before the Board of Supervisors. Opponents challenged the environmental impact report, saying the process was rushed and the analysis faulty, but it's been approved by every city agency it faced before going before the supervisors.

Community activist Rudy Corpuz spoke in front of a crowd on the steps of City Hall Tuesday. He said, "There's always haters right. There's only one group that opposes this project."

He was referring to about the Mission Bay Alliance -- a coalition of wealthy donors to UCSF. On Tuesday, they released a video warning about the negative impacts, particularly traffic jams they say could be life-threatening for people trying to get to nearby UCSF hospitals.

The video says, "Imagine its 7 o'clock Friday night in San Francisco. You're trying to get a sick loved one to UCSF Medical Center in Mission Bay, but thousands of cars pack city roads."

Mission Bay Alliance attorney Thomas Lippe told ABC7 News, "It's already carmeggeddon in that part of South of Market when there's a Giants game. So there is no doubt that's going to spread."

But San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee believes there are solid traffic mitigation strategies. He told the media, "We have dedicated lanes that only patients and doctors going to UC can use."

The arena opponents expected to lose at the board meeting Tuesday night.

Bruce Spaulding from the Mission Bay Alliance told ABC7 News, "Mission Bay alliance got started extremely late, compared to the Warriors. The Warriors have been working on this along time."

Mission Bay Alliance have threatened a lawsuit.

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