This week, the Western SoMa Task Force will hear the latest on the Archstone development, which includes 420 units of housing at 8th and Harrison Streets, and hopefully we’ll get some answers from Planning Department staff about what they’re up to (and why) in the area they call the Central Corridor. The meeting is on Wednesday, August 22, 2012 at 6:00 p.m. in Room 421, City Hall.
Category Archives: planning
Is the preferred alternative for Folsom Street revamp ready for prime time?
The SFMTA will propose a three lane configuration for a two-way Folsom Street to be considered in the upcoming environmental review. Click on the image above to see a high resolution PDF of the entire schematic.
If anything good can be said about the Central Corridor Plan, it might be that it gives us an opportunity to attach the final draft of the Folsom Street realignment into an environmental review study. Once the EIR is adopted, funding and implementation of the future Folsom Street Neighborhood Commercial District can begin.
Erin Miller, project manager for the Eastern Neighborhoods Transportation Implementation Planning Study (ENTRIPS), and other SFMTA staff will discuss the preferred and alternative proposals they have developed at next week’s meeting of the SoMa Leadership Council at 6:00 p.m. on Wednesday, August 15. These monthly meetings are held in the community room of the Folsom/Dore Apartments at 1346 Folsom Street. Continue reading
Filed under community services, economics, events, meetings, planning, transportation
Hyde apologizes to Planning Commission for misleading testimony
Entertainment Commissioner Glendon “Anna Conda” Hyde
During Public Comment before the Planning Commission recently, Entertainment Commissioner Glendon “Anna Conda” Hyde inappropriately introduced himself as having the authority to speak on behalf of the Entertainment Commission and presented a series of personal opinions as being the official position of the Commission.
Hyde was speaking on the adequacy of the Environmental Impact Report (EIR) for the Western SoMa Community Plan at a special hearing on Thursday, July 26, 2012. Continue reading
Filed under entertainment, planning
How to comment on an EIR
As part of the comment process for the Environmental Impact Report on the Western SoMa Community Plan, a public hearing has been scheduled by the Planning Commission for July 26, 2012, in Room 400, City Hall, 1 Dr. Carlton B. Goodlett Place, beginning at noon or later.
Comments are supposed to be confined to the environmental impacts of the Plan on cultural resources, transportation and circulation, air quality, and shadow as well as cumulative noise impacts. “Cultural resources” refers to “historic‐period resources of the built environment, historic‐period and prehistoric archeological resources, paleontological resources, and human remains.”
This brief video offers some useful guidance if you’d like to comment on the EIR.
Public comments will be accepted from until 5:00 p.m. on August 6, 2012. Written comments should be addressed to Bill Wycko, Environmental Review Officer, San Francisco Planning Department, 1650 Mission Street, Suite 400, San Francisco, CA 94103.
Jim Meko, chair
SoMa Leadership Council
Filed under planning
Planning Dept.’s obsession with “latest and greatest” is not smart growth
Central Corridor Draft Higher Height Limit Alternative
The focus of the Central Corridor Plan is on high tech. The focus of the revival of Mid-Market is on high tech. The focus of the Bayview/Hunters Point redevelopment is going to be on high tech and now planners would like the focus of the Western SoMa Plan to be on high tech too.
I think high tech is cool but this is getting ridiculous. It’s not the only source of jobs in this city. Continue reading
Wait til you see what the SFMTA just did to 8th Street
The creative juices are flowing over at the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA), fueled in part by the long-delayed approval of the bicycle plan after years of litigation and by the determined efforts of influential bicycle advocates who cast a jealous eye at some of the unusual traffic experiments happening in Europe. Prepare yourself for some weird bike lane configurations coming to your neighborhood soon. Continue reading
Filed under planning, public safety, transportation
Bunk-bed-stuffed residences where young programmers and designers work, eat and sleep
Interesting New York Times piece on “hacker hostels,” informal housing establishments that put a new twist on the long tradition of communal housing for tech types by turning it into a commercial enterprise. Coming in the midst of the student housing, smaller minimum unit size and reduction in open space legislation, it makes you wonder if this isn’t what Supervisor Scott Wiener and Mayor Ed Lee have in mind … visit the New York Times to read more.
Filed under planning, politics, quality of life
“If the Planning Department must play Santa Claus to some well-connected property owners …”
My remarks to the Planning Commission during public comment on June 28, 2012:
Let’s talk a little more about the Central Corridor Plan. The Planning Department would have you believe that this is all about accommodating the high tech industry. This incursion into the Western SoMa plan area has very little to do with high tech and everything to do with political pressure from the Chronicle, the Flower Mart and other large property owners in that area, the Academy of Art University being the largest of them all. Continue reading
Draft WSoMa EIR is finally out
The Draft Environmental Impact Report for the Western SoMa Community Plan concludes:
“In general, it is anticipated that future development under revised zoning controls would result in more cohesive neighborhoods throughout the Project Area. New development within the Draft Plan Area, specifically, would exhibit greater consistency in land use and building types, and would include more clearly defined residential neighborhoods, commercial corridors, and high-tech/light industrial/PDR areas.” Continue reading
Filed under planning
Neighbors of proposed Warriors’ arena ask Mayor Lee for a seat at the table
Salesforce.com recently backed away from its plans for a 2 million-square-foot campus in the Mission Bay neighborhood, another highly anticipated development in the same area as the Warriors arena and entertainment complex.
Mayor Ed Lee was understandably in an hurry to trumpet the news that he had persuaded the Golden State Warriors to relocate to a brand new arena along the Embarcadero, in the wake of a series of less than stellar developments in recent months.
The once heralded Americas Cup continues to scale back their once grandiose plans; Salesforce.com has abandoned its ambitious proposal to build a 2 million-square-foot campus in the Mission Bay neighborhood; even as Twitter moves into their new taxpayer-subsidized Market Street digs, Facebook’s stock tanks and the glow is coming off other high tech office projects; and the pending loss of the San Francisco 49ers remains a constant embarrassment. Continue reading
soma leadership council 