SAN FRANCISCO (KRON) — San Francisco supervisors have unanimously approved the environmental impact report for the Golden State Warriors’ new arena Tuesday night, making the city one step closer to bringing the team to San Francisco.

Warriors president and COO Rick Welts has responded to the decision.

“We have been overwhelmed by the positive support and encouragement from the neighborhood and from the city as a whole,” Welts said.

“The series of wins at public agencies, the huge numbers of supporters who came out today – this all represents our strength in numbers. This is the culmination of four years of hard work by our city and community partners,” Welts added. “The Warriors are excited and ready to build this new, state-of-the-art arena in San Francisco that’s worthy of our championship team and our world-class city and region.”

Opponents of the plan had filed an appeal after the environmental impact report was approved in November.

A new poll commissioned by opponents of the Warriors’ proposed stadium in San Francisco’s Mission Bay neighborhood shows increasing public opposition to the plan.

The new poll released Monday, commissioned by the Mission Bay Coalition and conducted by EDC Research, found that fewer than half of the 540 registered voters polled supported development of the proposed arena and commercial buildings at Third and 16th streets.

At 49 percent voter support, the Warriors’ proposed arena has seen a 12 percent decline in support since a Warriors-commissioned poll, conducted by David Binder Research and released in July, showed about 61 percent support for the development.

Sam Singer, a spokesman for the Mission Bay Alliance, has issued a statement on the vote:

The Mission Bay Alliance is disappointed with the city’s rubber-stamp, damn-the-public process at all costs approach to its approval of the ill-conceived and dangerous Warriors Mission Bay proposal. We will look at our legal options and likely challenge the City’s decision in the courts.

The City must comply with mandates of environmental law. It has not.

The City’s approval of this project is short-sighted. It is unlawful for the City to allow the Warriors’ desire to quickly build a new arena to trump long-term environmental protection. As our California Supreme Court ruled just last week when it set aside the massive Newhall Ranch project in southern California, despite an agency’s desire to approve a project it finds desirable, “CEQA’s requirements for informing the public and decision makers of adverse impacts, and for imposition of valid, feasible mitigation measures, still need to be enforced.”

The record in San Francisco shows that the Mission Bay Alliance has taken care to raise important environmental and zoning issues in this dispute. Yet the City to date has refused to correct even the most blatant of the EIR’s inadequacies and unsupported CEQA findings: the amendment of the Mission Bay South Redevelopment Plan and analysis of even one potentially-feasible off-site alternative.

San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee also issued a statement on Tuesday night’s vote:

“Today marks a huge win for San Francisco. This new, privately financed, state-of-the-art Golden State Warriors Event Center rounds out Mission Bay as an incredible and diverse ecosystem of technology, healthcare, science, and now entertainment. I thank the Board of Supervisors for approving this important project which will benefit San Franciscans for generations.

The rigorous, thorough, and comprehensive public review process demonstrates, once again, the commitment of the City, the Warriors, UCSF, and the community to build a multipurpose arena that works for the neighborhood and serves the entire Bay Area.

The Warriors are inspiring a new generation of fans throughout the Bay Area. I can’t wait to welcome them home to San Francisco.”

Earlier Tuesday, supporters of the new Golden State Warriors arena in San Francisco held a rally on the steps of City Hall.

A coalition of community leaders, small business owners, union members, and neighbors attended the event. Supporters said they wanted to highlight the many ways the Warriors project will benefit San Francisco.

This includes the creation of thousands of jobs, improvements to public transportation, needed amenities to the evolving neighborhood, and increased business for local merchants.

The Warriors’ plan is unique in that it is the only completely privately financed arena or stadium in the U.S. over the past two decades. The arena will hold 18,000 seats and will be located along the waterfront.Bay City News contributed to this report