[Sustain] Tomorrow 6:30pm! Oppose Hunters Point Plan At Bay Conservation Commission

[Eric Brooks]

Hi all,

See agenda item marked 3 under ***THE HEARING*** below.

Note that the hearing item involves the entire Candlestick Point
'redevelopment' plan, not just the land in the Leno SB 792 giveaway.

**TALKING POINTS**

Our best points with which to oppose the plan will address the Bay
Commission's own criteria of "whether the proposed project is adequately
designed to address the effect of sea level rise on public access areas"

We should argue:

a) A vast majority of Bayview Hunters Point residents have consistently
and overwhelmingly opposed this plan and their input about access,
views, safety, chemical contamination and climate induced sea level rise
have never been seriously or sufficiently addressed in the plan.

b) New evidence clearly shows that the climate crisis is orders of
magnitude worse than previously believed, and it is now likely that the
bay will undergo many meters of sea level rise over the next few
decades. The only way, if any, to mitigate such sea level rise is to put
an extensive wetland wildlife habitat buffer along the entire perimeter
of San Francisco Bay. This project plan clearly does exactly the
opposite and erects hundreds of acres of housing and commercial
buildings on land which will be extensively flooded in near future decades.

c) Toxic and radioactive chemicals from former Navy and commercial
operations in the area have not been (and probably can never be)
sufficiently cleaned up mechanically, and when the sea level inevitably
rises, these chemicals will leach into the neighborhood and the bay.
This makes the extensive restoration of a wetland wildlife buffer zone
vital, especially when we take into account that complex wetland
habitats are the -only- way that has been proven to successfully bind
and filter such deeply mired and infused chemical contamination.

d) Lennar is unlikely to complete even the existing extremely flawed
plan. Lennar is in severe financial difficulty, has canceled affordable
housing agreements, is behind schedule on its construction projects, and
has even abandoned entire waterfront projects like the Vallejo Mare
Island development.

e) Lennar is apparently getting projects approved only in order to
pretend to its stockholders that its capital value is growing when it is
in fact collapsing. This has led to Lennar simply shifting dirt and rock
around to pretend that its projects are moving forward; and this
digging, grading and shifting without ever finally anchoring the soil is
stirring up and leaving exposed natural and dumped toxic materials which
are directly poisoning both area residents and the bay.

For these reasons, all proposed -and- existing construction should be
immediately disapproved and halted until the area is secured from
contamination and a sensible restoration plan is adopted.

***THE HEARING***

Here is the hearing announcement:

(also at http://www.bcdc.ca.gov/meetings/drb/2009/09-14_agenda.shtml
with document links)

San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission (BCDC)

Design Review Board Meeting

September 14, 2009, 6:30 pm
BCDC Conference Room
50 California Street, 26th Floor
San Francisco, CA

Agenda

3. Hunters Point Shipyard-Candlestick Point Project, City and County of
San Francisco; First Pre-Application Review

The Design Review Board will hold a public hearing on a proposal by the
San Francisco Redevelopment Agency and HPS Development Co., LP, and CP
Development Co., LP (a joint venture between Lennar and Scala Real
Estate Partners, Hillwood, and Estein and Associates, USA), to implement
a residential, commercial, parks and open space project, at an
approximately 700-acre site along a 9.6-mile section of the southeastern
waterfront in the City and County of San Francisco.

The proposed project would involve the development of two sites, the
Hunter’s Point Shipyard Shipyard and Candlestick Point, that would
ultimately function as a single integrated area. The proposed
development project would involve the construction of 10,500 residential
units, a ferry terminal, a 300-berth marina, a causeway over Yosemite
Slough, a public housing facility to replace the existing Alice Griffith
complex, and possibly a new 69,000-seat football stadium. In addition,
the project would involve the development of 885,000 square feet of
retail space, 2,650,000 square feet of office/research and development
space, a 150,000-square-foot, 220-room hotel, a 75,000-square-foot
cultural arena, and a 225,000-square-foot artist’s studio facility.
Across the site, building heights range from three-story townhomes to
32-story highrises. The site would be developed to facilitate pedestrian
and bicycle circulation and public transit. The proposed project would
also involve the development of and improvements to approximately 350
acres of park and open space area. The project would occur within the
Commission’s 100-foot shoreline band and Bay jurisdictions, and within
areas designated for priority use in the Commission’s San Francisco Bay
Plan.

The Board’s review of this project will focus on:

(1) whether the proposed project provides adequate, usable and
attractive public access spaces, and whether the project provides
adequate connections to and continuity along the shoreline;

(2) whether the proposed project maintains and preserves the visual
quality of the Bay and shoreline, and enhances the public’s view of the
Bay and shoreline especially in relation to the proposed structures;

(3); whether the proposed project is adequately designed to address the
effect of sea level rise on public access areas; and(4) whether interim
access improvements could be installed and, if so, how such improvements
would be designed and implemented.

(Jaime Michaels) [415/352-3613 or jaimem at bcdc.ca.gov]

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