Archive for the ‘Third Street Corridor’ Category
Unlocking Schlage
Last night, the San Francisco Redevelopment Agency unanimously approved a plan to redevelop the Schlage Lock site in Visitacion Valley, in the southeastern corner of San Francisco. The planning process for this site, combined with myriad delays, have occupied the better part of a decade. Schlage Lock’s operations at the factory were a major source of manufacturing jobs in Visitacion Valley since 1926, and in 1974, Ingersoll Rand Corporation acquired the operation. The plant formally closed in 1999, and in 2000, a controversial proposal for a Home Depot on the site was opposed by community members, who thereafter were encouraged to step up and have a say in how this substantial chunk of vacant land in their neighborhood would be developed. Interim zoning was established to prevent big box retail from settling into the property, and a community planning process for the site was initiated that ultimately led to the creation of a Strategic Concept Plan in 2002. But an obstacle remained — and not the neighbors, who, in the case of Visitacion Valley, actually eagerly welcomed the opportunity to revitalize their often overlooked corner of San Francisco with an influx of housing and reinvestment. No, the obstacle this time was Ingersoll Rand, who was embroiled in protracted litigation with Universal Paragon Corporation. At that time, Ingersoll Rand owned the 12.3-acre Schlage Lock site, and Universal Paragon owned the the adjacent six-acre former Southern Pacific rail yard; their dispute was centered on the groundwater and soil contamination resulting from Schlage Lock’s operations.
The planning process was stuck in limbo once the Strategic Concept Plan was adopted — until 2005, when Supervisor Sophie Maxwell pushed for the initiation of a Visitacion Valley redevelopment survey area that was in turn established in June 2005. Community workshops continued through 2007, and the conceptual design for the redevelopment area evolved into the current form of the plan. June 2008 was a landmark timepoint for the redevelopment — for not only had the Redevelopment Agency completed a draft Environmental Impact Report, but Ingersoll Rand finally agreed to sell the Schlage Lock property to Universal Paragon for $450 million. Under the agreement, Universal Paragon assumed most of the $25 million costs for cleaning up the site, and Universal Paragon terminated a long-standing contamination lawsuit it had filed against Ingersoll Rand. Ultimate buildout of the redevelopment plan lies on the other side of this economic downturn and the costly cleanup of toxic contamination — but can we just say finally? A full decade after Schlage Lock operations ceased, the dream to redevelop this land revitalize Visitacion Valley moves closer to being realized. The Redevelopment Agency has now adopted environmental findings, approved the Design for Development, and approved the Redevelopment Plan. The next steps in the process will be to seek approval from the Board of Supervisors and the Mayor.
Aerial view of Schlage Lock site. Courtesy of S.F. Redevelopment Agency.
June 2008 Election Recap: Propositions F and G
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| Courtesy San Francisco Redevelopment Agency. |
If you read the two previous posts about this past election, you probably noticed one rather glaring omission from the discussion: the two San Francisco measures that were actually about city planning, Propositions F and G concerning the massive redevelopment of the Hunters Point Shipyard and Candlestick Point. Unfortunately, after writing those other two election posts, there was no time to write a post about Hunters Point as well. But one thing is pretty certain: there will be opportunity in the future to discuss the landmark redevelopment of this area of the City. As you have likely already heard, 62% of San Franciscans voted “No” on the 50% affordable housing mandate in Prop F, while an almost equal number of San Franciscans voted “Yes” on Prop G, signalizing a desire to move forward with the cleaning up and redevelopment of this Superfund site. (Link to SF Election Results, scroll down to the bottom for city measures.)
Extensions of Muni Lines 44 and 108 Start This Saturday
Extensions of Muni lines 44 and 108 start this Saturday. February 23, Muni will start running permanently extended service on the 44-O’Shaughnessy and 108-Treasure Island bus routes. The 44 will be rerouted off of Fairfax and onto Evans, terminating at Bayview Plaza, near the Evans T-Third station. The 108 will be extended to serve the Caltrain depot at 4th and Townsend, facilitating a more direct connection between Treasure Island and the Peninsula. The extension will operate every day, between approximately 2:00 pm to 10:00 pm, with express service between the Transbay Terminal and the Caltrain depot. More details are provided on the SFMTA’s website. But the most exciting piece of news coming out of this story might be that contrary to its usual procedure of including blocks of ambiguous and confusing text, the MTA actually included clear maps depicting the rerouted service.
Remembering the 15-Third
In April, after construction delays and budget overruns, Muni, at long last, inaugurated its newest rail line, the T-Third Street. Advertised as “Connecting People, Connecting Communities”, the T-Third Street is an investment in some of San Francisco’s long-overlooked communities, particularly the humbler Bayview and Visitacion Valley neighborhoods, in the southeastern corner of the city — a place many people in the Bay Area and even San Francisco know only through the Chronicle’s homicide reports. The line provides direct rail service from downtown to the 3rd Street corridor, as well as to the UCSF Mission Bay campus and the new neighborhood that will surround the campus some years in the future. Solely from the perspective of transit service, the 3rd Street corridor should not have been given first priority for a rail line, but the T-Third project demonstrates a tangible and substantial investment in troubled neighborhoods, making it an excellent political tool. Back in April, the SFMTA held an opening ceremony in which city supervisors, “Da (Old) Mayor” Willie Brown (who spoke because the project was studied and developed under his watch), and even Madam Speaker Pelosi, in a grand sort of “Kumbaya”, pontificated about the deep symbolism of the new line and how it would help usher in a new era for the neglected southeastern neighborhoods. The transition from the old 15-Third bus to the new T-Third rail line became a metaphor for the future promise held by the 3rd Street corridor — promise which the T-Third would itself encourage and help to cultivate.
