Minor victory for Golden Gate Park garage opponents

The briefing, an informal preview of a ruling that's expected by mid-July, eliminated several avenues garage opponents had tried to use to kill the project. Warren indicated that he would rule that a California Environmental Quality Act lawsuit against the garage has no merit and that he would uphold the city's financing and design plans – except for one key point.

While the city had hoped to build the 800-space underground garage with one of its two entrances just inside the park, near the M.H. de Young Memorial Museum, Warren said the structure would instead have to be designed with all entrances outside the park, as indicated in Proposition J, the 1998 ballot measure that authorized the plan.

Keeping the entrance out of the park could be an environmental victory – if it reduces the impact of cars in the park and increases park accessibility to pedestrians. But as with each step in this years-long dispute, the real meaning of this latest announcement is not yet clear. That's because, according to Mike Elzey of the Golden Gate Park Concourse Authority, garage supporters could try to build the second entrance as a surface road, instead of using a tunnel that originates outside the park.

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