Transcripts For SFGTV Government Access Programming 20240714

Go over the sites design and program of the master plan. San franciscos Housing Affordability and shortage has long been an issue and the city has developed several policies and programs to attract them. In 2014, propertie proposition d with 33 units being affordable. In support of proposition k, former mayor ed lee launched the public land for Housing Program calling for 4,000 units on public land by 2020. 50 of which will be affordable. So the Planning Department and the office of Economic Workforce Development to select the site, public land especially that can be built for housing and also provide Public Benefits those four sites are initial sites. There are more sites not shown in the map. They can help reach 27 of the targeted 4,000 units. The balboa website is in the south was nearby the balboa park station right next to city college of San Francisco, just north of ocean avenue commercial district surrounded by neighborhoods like sunny side, inkel side. This is under utilized 17acre land owned by San Francisco Public Utilities commission. This is the great opportunity for achieving a lot of public lands for housing goals. It can provide Affordable Housing but also physical improvements and public amenities like parks and this is nearby in money money muni sta. While the site is a great location, the site actually faces several transportation challenges. If you have been there, you might have experienced difficulties accessing Public Transit and also getting around during rush hour can be challenges. These are some of the projects the city family is working on to address Transportation Safety and accessibility issues. We are aware that and we put it high priority its a critical component to improve transit accessibility to the site and also that pro Lighting Options for people is an important priority. The project that is in 2014 with initial Community Outreach. A critical component of the Community Outreach is the balboa citizens of the add voice recommittee which is established in 2015. Providing one critical responsibilities creating principles for developers election. Over the course of 16cac meetings, we developed a comprehensive list of Development Parameters. That also is in response top areas of Community Interest including provisions of Affordable Housing, public open spaces and minimizing loss of city College Affordable parking and Traffic Congestion. We have under each category. Im not going to go through every single one of them but here are some key highlights. For housing, the parameters called for 50 of the housing being affordable and for transportation its focusing on maximizing and minimizing Traffic Congestion by improving safety and accessibility. The Committee Also stressed encore dinnation with city college especially on Transportation Management sorry. Transportation demand management and site planning. One of the key public parameters called for a total of four acres of open space including a minimum of 1. 5acre park. And because the site is also neighboring singlefamily homes, the urban design parameters focus on the scale and character of the development asking for temporary heights. Theres a lot of sustainable parameter goals including meeting or exceeding sustainability such as maximizing water use and meeting cities zero waste goals. Also, childcare and committee facilities in ground floor uses our called for additional Public Benefits. Thank you, hello. Lee with the office of economic and workforce development. Parameters formed a key element of the citys developer r. P. F. The main selection criteria focused on how well the proposals addressed those parameters. The skills and experience of the Developer Team and how well the financial proposals addressed compensation to sfpuc who owns the land. Reservoir Community Partners was selected in august of 2017. It includes a partnership between Bridge Housing and avalon bay communities with Mission Housing, Pacific Union develop company and habitat for humanity of San Francisco all companies with local experience who will take on various elements of this large project. The citys anticipated entitlement package includes three major components. A land disposition agreement by the sfpuc for a value that will fulfill their charter mandates to receive fair market value for their land. A development greet that will object la gate the developer to provide all of the Public Benefits and a special use district that will control uses and design. We are currently preparing a draft i. E. R. That will be released later this summer and we anticipate final e. I. R. Certification and project hearings in a year. I want to focus on the key Public Benefit for this project. 50 Affordable Housing. This ambitious goal came out of the Community Process and was based on c. A. C. Feedback and supervisor norman yees leadership. 33 of the Affordable Housing units will be funded by the Developer Partnership using cross subsidy of the 50 market rate Housing Units and conventional Affordable Housing subsidiaries. [ please stand by ] and commitments to sustainability and workforce development. I will introduce peter waller from the development team. Good afternoon, evening. Peter waller with the architects i am part of the Core Design Team that also includes gls landscaping and engineers. We are delighted to be part of this team, fortunate to be part of this team. We do a lot of Affordable Housing throughout the bay area area. This is very ambitious, and high goals in terms of the affordability, and all the community benefits. To work with this community, this team, and this city, is a great opportunity for us. The site has been described, for us, it is the last piece of the puzzle in the neighborhood, along with the city college Upper Reservoir sight to pull together these different uses and make a cohesive place here that really links these other pieces together. The transit aspect is critical for us. A lot of the pieces that are coming together have been talked about, these pieces were critical to plan in a way that emphasizes walking and biking. Working with the, has been a great working with the, has been a great process for us. They have also had important guidance in terms of placement of open space, uses, circulation , massing of the buildings, similarly, we have been collaborating closely with city college as they work through their facilitys master plan, and carefully coordinating our work to make sure that they can proceed with their performing arts center, and these pieces involve the pedestrian way, the vehicle circulation, all of that is coordinated. They are such a critical neighborhood, integrating with their development is critical for us. We want to make sure they use our open space. We want to make sure our residents feel like they are part of this great emerging campus, or they are an integrated neighbor. The planning of this process started with open space, and that is key in terms of the Community Plan for this space, the Community Planners and principles. We looked at the critical connection point to ocean avenue , free to call oh, city college, all the points around, and thought about how people will naturally circulate across this place and then where is that natural place for open space. Given that, the prime location, make sure we dont build on that key space, and then place the roadways around that so they interfere as little as possible with that open space, and make the best of our two connection points that we have, one at avenue and ocean, and the second one at free to call oh,. And then overlying that, a Pedestrian Network that is both on the open space and the streets and connects out to ocean avenue, the city college, all the way through bart, and in the other direction, into the courtyards to the stoops. Theres a complete network. When you step out of your front door, the obvious choice is to walk or to take the bus. As we go threedimensional, the buildings provide an important wind buffering from that prevailing north and northwest breeze, but the orientation of the park also provides good sunlight in the midst day and into the afternoon. And then the massing of the project, taller around the avenue, close to city college, stepping down all the way to three to two stories adjacent to the neighbors on Westwood Park. The project will have a really strong silhouette mean stepping character in view from their surroundings. And of course, a number of sustainability measures. Somewhere mentioned. Their rooftops are really prioritized for Renewable Energy generation. The open spaces are thought of as a sequence of spaces, if you think about starting down at ocean avenue on the bottom, you come up, and the sfpuc sfpuc space, which is a given, through and intimate passage, then you open up onto this large open space which is the reservoir park, almost 400 feet long, which has plenty of room for a green space for a variety of uses, from terracing, there are 20 to 30 feet of slope across this site. And indoor and outdoor space, and the associated play areas. That is the buzzer for our time. I will go a little bit more, but let me know if i need to cut it off. We are close to the end here. And then just a quick comparison to understand the space, it is really the scale of south park south of the roads that south park has around it. It is really all of that area that is green. Reservoir parkas about 2 acres altogether. It does have contact with the public roads on four sides, but not a road going around inside. Theres much more actual green space. It is still neighborhood scale, but is large enough to provide inanities and a range of uses for not just the residents here, but also the larger neighborhood the sfpuc space is also a critical active part of this. Were thinking about a number of things that could be utilized for picking up on the energy from ocean avenue and city college, and then briefly on the architecture, we are working to create an architecture that is specific for this place, that works in this neighborhood, buildings, and landscape work together. We are really focusing on the notion of indoor and outdoor spaces, lots of transparency between groundfloor amenity spaces and the streets, opening to midblock so that the courtyards become part of the open Space Network and stoops and landscape perimeters so that streets are active, but they are also green. I gave you an extra minute. I think we are about wrapped up. Are wrapped up, thank you. We may have questions. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. We will take Public Comment on this item. I have quite a few speaker cards , so when i call your name, please come on up. [calling names]. [speaking spanish] [calling names]. You get two minutes. Come on up, dont be shy. Maybe folks have left, the day is late, so i will read a few more speaker cards. [calling names] i am for defending public hit Public Education now. It sounds like a bizarre presentation about what this disaster is that is being proposed here. First of all, millions of dollars have been spent on the city and county of San Francisco in collusion with avalon to present a project which the communities against, including the neighborhoods in San Francisco. Why are they against did . You have gridlock right now. We have been discussing the issue of gridlock in San Francisco. The m. T. A. Said they will not expand ocean avenue. What does that mean. That means the 1100 condos, the milliondollar condos, mostly, they will be flooded with cars, thats what that means. It means more gridlock on ocean avenue. The fair market value, what is the fair market value of that property . It is probably 802 a billion dollars. We have not been presented with any evaluation of that property. It is worth a lot more than what avalon will pay for it. The other issue is privatization of public land because you are turning public land over to private developers, and unfortunately, the chancellor is going along with that and he is supporting development by the private developers. This is the privatization of public land and it is against the interest of the people of San Francisco. The San Francisco Labor Council has called for the transfer of that land by the p. U. C. To the Community College so they can develop it. If they want housing for students and teachers, they can do it. We should not trust the developers to take care of the interest and the needs of the people of San Francisco. We need to protect the public land, and students who drive to the college, workingclass students, will no longer be able to do that, and the performing Arts Education center will be destroyed with this development. How are people going to get to it . Where are they going to park . They cant because it will be developed by avalon for their uses, for private use. That has to stop, and we have to stop this project. Thank you. Next speaker, please. [indiscernible] george had to leave, so he asked me to read a recent resolution by the coalition of the sentences will neighborhoods , even though it doesnt have all the pieces. He said, be it resolved the coalition for San Francisco neighborhoods asks the San Francisco Public Utility Commission to transfer this public property to city college of San Francisco San Francisco and furthermore, be it resolved the coalition for San Francisco neighborhoods urges the City College Board of trustees to exercise their right as a Public Institution to ask a San Francisco p. U. C. To transfer this public property to city college of San Francisco so we can keep it forever in public hands for the public good. And furthermore, be resolved the coalition for San Francisco neighborhoods urges the City College Board of trustees to remain vigilant, to ensure that the performing Arts Education center be built before any development on the balboa reservoir that goes forward. And furthermore, be it resolved, in the event of the transfer of title to the property to city college that does not take place , develop it is pursued, the coalition for San Francisco neighborhoods urges the City College Board of trustees to remain vigilant to ensure that any loss of parking be mitigated before any development on the balboa reservoir goes forward so as not to limit the educational access of any student. The coalition for San Francisco neighborhoods represents many neighborhood groups throughout the city. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Harry bernstein, first, the big picture. Balboa reservoir project amounts to an excessive number of units now proposed, 1100 to 1550, with a much higher density and the surrounding neighborhoods, plus substantial increased Traffic Congestion without effective medication or improvement of transit infrastructure. The privatization of public land goes against the longterm public interest. Some background, before there was the citizens Advisory Committee, there was the balboa park station area plan, and one policy of the plan was to dissolve the west basin of the balboa reservoir to the greatest benefit of the city as a whole, as well as for the surrounding neighborhood, but what would be the greatest benefit for the city . The discussion never took place. One space, open space is one option. The former mayor preferred housing, and that was that. They got maybe 500 units at the time. Reclaiming this site, another possibility. It is educational space for city college, which is also a valid option. In the late 1980s, the board of supervisors had once offered the reservoir site to city college for a token payment of 1 dollar, but the mayor next to that. We have