Hello everyone, Here is the letter from GAGH. Jeremy Nelson is hoping that we can endorse it at our Tuesday meeting. Sue July 29, 2005 Board of Directors UC Hastings College of the Law 200 McAllister Street San Francisco, CA 94102 Board of Directors YMCA 631 Howard St Ste 500 San Francisco, CA 94105 Dear Directors of UC Hastings College of Law and YMCA: Groups Against the Hastings Garage (GAHG) is an organization of local community groups, citizens, Hastings students and alumni formed to address common concerns regarding the proposed parking garage/YMCA gym at Golden Gate and Larkin streets. We are writing to express our deep concerns about the parking garage project and to urge you to reconsider the current proposal. The site at Golden Gate and Larkin has long been the focus of dispute. When Hastings purchased the lot in the 1970s, two residence hotels, home to over 80 low-income tenants, occupied the site. In 1978, residents were evicted and relocated from the buildings. Eleven years later, Hastings officials claimed that the buildings suffered irreparable structural damage from the Loma Prieta earthquake and demolished the valuable housing. After intense community resistance to a planned parking garage in 2002, Hastings formed a blue-ribbon committee to decide the future of the parcel in question. In February 2003, the committee adopted a revised plan for a mixed-use development on the site, featuring student housing, ground-level retail and a refurbished Central YMCA. The plan provided for additional parking located behind and underneath the new development and promised that over 100 units of affordable housing would be created in the current Central YMCA site to replace the demolished units. With its new plan, Hastings has reneged on the committees recommendations. The current proposal calls for a seven-story, above-ground parking garage with space for 450 cars, no housing, minimal retail space, and a new YMCA facility situated between the garage and the 200 McAllister Hastings building. The various groups comprising GAHG all have different interests at stake and different concerns, however, all are in agreement that the most objectionable aspects of the garage are the absence of housing, adverse impacts on the community, and the high number of parking spaces. The school and community need housing. Most alarming about the proposed parking garage is the absence of any housing. Lack of housing was a major factor in the defeat of the first garage project two years ago. It is remarkable and discouraging that Hastings has so easily forgotten that it, too, is a member of the local community and can best achieve its desired results by cooperating and communicating with its neighbors and its students. A failure to build housing would not only damage the community, but would hurt the school and the students as well. The 2004 Hastings Master Plan acknowledges that existing student housing is fully occupied and has a wait list of approximately 80 people. To emphasize the inadequacy of the housing situation, on 17 June, 2005, Pamela Serota of the Office of the LL.M. Program sent an email to the Hastings community searching for rooms to rent to incoming LL.M. students because the Tower is already full. This project is Hastings last chance to build student housing. The diverse, sometimes conflicting, needs of the student body must be carefully considered in their entirety in order to build the best project. A parking garage will harm those who already live in the neighborhood. The current proposal does not include housing, but this does not mean that no one will be living near, or impacted by, the garage. There are many long-time residents of the neighborhood who are less than eager to become neighbors to 450 noisy, polluting cars. The AIDS Housing Alliance, an organization which secures housing for people with AIDS, is particularly concerned about the potential adverse health effects of the pollution from the garage on sick and disabled residents living at 324 Larkin Street. It is imperative to Hastings continued institutional success to address these concerns and avoid either the reality or the appearance of hostility to the schools neighbors. Building more parking is bad transportation policy and bad urban design. This neighborhood has some of the best transit-access on the West Coast, some of the lowest rates of car ownership in the country, and at least 40% of the Hastings community gets to campus by transit, bike and on foot. Building a large parking garage in this environment is short-sighted and counter to community interests. More parking will attract more cars, causing more traffic congestion, defeating public transit, and threaten to increase already significant rates of automobile caused pedestrian and bicyclist injuries and fatalities. Sufficient parking already exists. There are 2,900 parking spaces within walking distance and the average weekday afternoon (1-3 pm) occupancy rate is 87% (2004 Hastings Master Plan). This means that at the time of highest parking demand from other uses in the neighborhood, there are still nearly 400 empty spaces available within walking distance of Hastings. Transportation for a Livable City surveyed Civic Center/Mid-Market parking facilities on weekday evenings (6-9 pm) and found occupancy rates ranging from 11% to 69% (2004 TLC Parking Occupancy Survey). This means that there are several thousand parking spaces available in the evening within a reasonable walking distance of Hastings. GAHG acknowledges that Hastings is currently struggling with a very serious financial situation, but we do not believe that Hastings has, in good faith, considered alternative uses for this property that would better serve the students, the community, the city and the school. Sincerely, Groups Against the Hastings Garage James - Aids Housing Alliance (AHA) / Rainbow Flag Apts. (RFA) Brian - Aids Housing Alliance (AHA) / Rainbow Flag Apts. (RFA) Daniel Frattin UC Hastings student representative Kyle Sosebee UC Hastings student representative [Jeremy Nelson - Transportation for a Livable City (TLC)?] Carmen - Transportation for a Livable City (TLC) Sam - Tenderloin Housing Clinic (THC) / Central City Collaborative (CCC) [Howard Sierra Club?] Don Willenburg (sp?) SF Bicycle Coalition