Gov. Jerry Brown signed legislation Friday making it easier for San Francisco to create financing districts to pay for improvements tied to the America’s Cup. “This bill gives San Francisco the flexibility it needs to finance important waterfront improvements. “The Port of San Francisco is a beautiful urban coastline,” Brown said, “but its infrastructure needs a lot of work.” Indeed, some rickety piers are at risk of being condemned because the port does not have the money to fix them.

The Infrastructure Financing Districts Act of 1990 allows local governments to divert property tax increment revenues from the state to build roads and other infrastructure improvements in specified areas. The process of forming an infrastructure financing district is lengthy, requiring an extended bureaucratic review and three separate votes of the people.

The city expects to set up infrastructure finance districts once it completes the state-mandated environmental review by the end of this year.