Sacramento is now one step closer to getting a new sports and entertainment complex for the NBA’s Sacramento Kings to move into thanks to a bill in the California senate.

Sen. Darrell Steinberg’s Senate Bill 743 passed through the California Legislature with bipartisan support.

Steinberg said SB 743 would relax some regulations imposed by the California Environmental Quality Act streamlining the process to develop the downtown Sacramento arena that will house the Kings and enable business growth throughout California.

Business owners expect increases in revenue, while others are concerned over parking. One Sacramento group is trying to put public funding for the arena on the ballot.

Now, it is going to Gov. Jerry Brown who can sign and enact the bill into law, or he has until Oct. 13 to veto it.

Steinberg’s spokesman Mark Hedlund said the bill offers significant job creation.

“The proposed downtown Sacramento entertainment and sports center [is] expected to generate about 4,000 jobs,” Hedlund said in an email. “That’s just the arena project itself; the planned surrounding development of 1.5 million square feet in mixed-use residential will generate even more jobs. As this revitalizes downtown and the region, generating billions of dollars in economic activity over future years, the stimulus to business creates even more employment opportunity.”

The new arena would create 3,600 new construction jobs and retain 600 permanent jobs from Sleep Train Arena – the Kings current facility. Additionally, the new arena would need to fill 200 positions. It would also provide the indirect benefits of revitalizing downtown plaza and surrounding areas, according to a fact sheet from Steinberg’s office.

The fact sheet also said the arena would replace the environmentally-inefficient, suburban and outdated Sleep Train Arena. Unlike the current 25-year-old arena, the new downtown facility would be required to meet at least a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design silver standard, similar to the Midtown eatery Hot Italian that was awarded the LEED Silver Certification by the United States Green Building Council.

Pizza Rock Manager Jason Rose said K Street businesses including Dive Bar, District 30 and Kbar, cannot wait for the new arena project to start.

“I think business will increase tenfold,” Rose said. “People who are parking nearby will come eat before an event and probably after, too. It will be awesome.”

Rose said the area could be more upscale and less vacant, however, he raised concerns over parking.

“It’ll be hard to park,” Rose said. “The street will be packed before and after a game. It’ll be like it used to, like, when there was Thursday Night Market – it’ll be better for this street.”

But some disagree.

 Business owner Jonathan Hersha runs the smoke shop, Old Sacramento Seegars.

“I think it will create a traffic nightmare downtown,” Hersha said.

 Parking is not the only thing Sacramentans are worried about as plans move forward on the sports complex.

Sacramento Taxpayers Opposed to Pork, also knowns as STOP, is currently engaged in a campaign to place an initiative on the June 2014 ballot that would restrict the city from using public funds for the development or construction of an arena without approval by a simple majority of voters.

Political consultant Brandon Powers, an Orange County resident, led the effort to gather signatures to create the ballot initiative. Powers took $100,000 from Seattle hedge fund manager Chris Hansen, who is someone known got high-risk investments with borrowed money.

Powers used Hansen’s money to circulate petitions to stop the arena project and put Sacramento in jeopardy of losing the Kings, according to a STOP announcement.

“The Kings franchise isn’t just an asset for the Sacramento region, but an asset for the entire state.” Hedlund said. “We’ve fought hard against out-of-state interests trying to take the Kings, and the battle is far from over.”

Earlier this year, Hansen was rimming the prospect of harboring the Kings in Seattle. In June, one month after the NBA board of governors denied him the right to buy the Kings, Hansen donated the money to an Orange County Political Action Committee, which then set out to persuade Sacramento residents to sign a petition for a referendum on building the arena.

In August, after the Fair Political Practices Commission forced disclosure of the list of investors who paid to gather the signatures. Hansen denied giving Powers permission and requested he not follow through on the initiative process and hand the signed petitions to election officials.

“[Hansen] thought he would get away with it. He can he get in big trouble for what he did, but is there any recourse?” Political Consultant Steve Maviglio said.

Maviglio said Steinberg has already condemned this. Getting signatures for ballot initiatives has been taken over by corporate and big business interests, he said.

Hedlund said Sacramento has to move forward with a new arena, a condition made clear by the NBA. In fact, the project has to be completed in just three years, September 2016.

Missing the deadline could mean losing the Kings.

“This issue and this project have never been solely about basketball and the Kings,” Hedlund said. “It’s about huge private investment creating an economic catalyst to revitalize the downtown of the state’s Capital City and to help fuel economic growth for the entire region.”