The San Francisco Board of Supervisors Tuesday began its initial discussion of plans to build a new waterfront arena for the Golden State Warriors over the next half-decade.
The board this afternoon unanimously passed a resolution about the arena, which the Warriors plan to build by 2017 at Piers 30-32 just south of the Bay Bridge.
The basketball team, which has a lease at Oracle Arena in Oakland through 2017, announced its plans to move across the Bay at a news conference last month.
The board’s resolution established that competitive bidding was not necessary for the agreement between San Francisco and the team, and confirmed that the city’s Office of Economic and Workforce Development would be the lead negotiator for the deal.
The resolution also requires that the city and team do extensive outreach to nearby community members who will be impacted by the plan.
Supervisor Jane Kim, whose district contains the proposed arena site, said the team has committed to beginning community meetings as soon as a couple weeks from today, although no dates have been set.
“This project, as amazing as it is, will have a tremendous impact on the neighborhood,” Kim said, adding that her office has been “semi-flooded with emails about this.”
Board president David Chiu encouraged the team, when it develops the designs for the arena, to “take advantage of our local talent” while other supervisors mentioned the importance of the Warriors following the city’s local hiring ordinance.
Ken Rich, a project director with the Office of Economic and Workforce Development, outlined the timeline of the project for the board, saying their vote today was “merely the opening tipoff.”
The city will now begin working with the team on a detailed description of the project and will return to the board in September with a transaction term sheet, Rich said.
The environmental impact report for the project would then be developed and put in front of the city’s Planning Commission by the end of 2013, he said.
If all goes as planned with the approval process and construction, by 2017 the city will “have a waterfront facility that will be the envy of the world,” Rich said.
Dan McMenamin, Bay City News
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