Plan Potrero Hill SF

I.
At our March 31st workshop, we took a closer look at the neighborhood hubs identified on March 17th.

In particular:

Daggett Triangle and the 16th street corridor:
-It is rumored that CCA may move its Oakland campus here, resulting in a significant increase in population, traffic and need for parking. Dick Millet will try to find out more about this and report back, so we may consider that eventuality in these plans. This is all the more important since Ken Rich of the Planning Dept. confirmed that CCA is not required to submit an institutional master plan to the City.

-There is already increased traffic along Missouri, Texas and Mississippi Streets, between 7th and 16th Streets, and 16th and 17th Streets, reflecting use by both UCSF and CCA. The UCSF population in particular has good incentive to use our street parking, since it’s free (and then walk across the railroad tracks to their buildings), and their lots are not.
Metered parking here on the Hill was discussed and that conversation continues.
(Let’s also find out if CCA has a transit or shuttle requirement.)

South Side Neighborhood Hub (22nd to Cesar Chavez, btw. 280 & 101):
There is currently a small Neighborhood Commercial district near Rhode Island and 24th Streets; although it is zoned NC-2, it is not really operating as such.

Dogpatch:
-Residents there say connecting 3rd Street at 20th to Espirit Park is not needed since the many businesses along those corridors do the job just fine.
-However, this area does need to be connected to Pier 70.

Whole Foods area (including DeHaro, Rhode Island, Carolina, 16th and 17th to the west of Jackson Square Park):
- While this area is currently is under formula retail controls, there seems to be good consensus that the neighborhood wants local businesses in that area; the idea being that while the Whole Foods is wanted, a mall is not.
- 17th Street is too narrow in this area:
o Try a 2-hour no parking window on the east side of 17th Street in the early morning, and a 2-hour no parking window on the west side of 17th Street in the early evening?
o Ken Rich noted that the number of cars on17th at Whole Foods would stay just about the same even if more retail were added in the surrounding area.
- Signaled left hand turns are needed from 17th Street onto Potrero Ave.
- Strong need to minimize curb cuts.
Also:
o Discussion about how many stories high will be built in the area: just 1 or 2 stories high, or 5 or 6 stories high?
o Is stackable parking a viable idea for this stretch?

Roundabout (Henry Adams St, Townsend St, 601 King St):
- Added to the list of Hubs.
- It is already operating as a Hub with Roche Bobois, Union Bank and BofA, Starbucks, etc. as well as significant new residential development, above ground floor retail).
- (It is also the possible that the Concourse will have many more residential units.) There will be thousands of people living there, so ample services and parking for these new residents is critical.

9th Street and Brannan mall (Trader Joe’s, Nordstrom, Bed Bath & Beyond, etc):
-Added to list of Hubs.

Franklin Square (Bryant, betw, 16th and 17th):
- Added to list of Hubs.

Franklin Square’s First Community Design Meeting For the Playground Re-build will be Thursday, April 12. For the complete meeting announcement, click here: Franklin Square

General:
-Where are good places to put small, walkable alleys (with no car or truck traffic or very limited) off larger thoroughfare?
- It would be useful to connect our planning process to the Port’s process (see below), via public benefits. One example would be to mitigate our neighborhood’s parking stresses. There is more on this below, particularly as the Port is doing their planning process for SWL 337, currently a Giants parking lot*.
- Parking:
- City Parking garages are likely not a practical idea, since the bond would need to be paid for from the garage’s revenue; it is City policy to discourage public underground parking.
- Under highway areas (for example, under 280 on west side) will be explored as parking lots.
- Streetscapes: We’ll be talking about this in a lot more depth over the coming weeks. Corinne Woods let’s us know:
“The Complete Streets movement continues to grow, aiming by policy and practice to make streets work not just for cars but for everyone: pedestrians, bicyclists, mobility-impaired folks and transit riders. Last year San Francisco officially adopted policies for both “Complete Streets” and “Better Streets”, and now the Streetscape Master Plan project will attempt to knit these fine policies into a coherent set of standards and projects to improve and “complete” the public realm for all.”

II.
David Beaupre of the SF Port let us know that the Port is (a) in the midst of doing a Master Plan for Pier 70 (a 65-acre site), and *(b) doing a public planning process for the 14-acre site south of China Basin Channel (currently a Giants parking lot. For more info, click here: Seawall Lot 337.
David will give us an update again in early May.

III.
Ken Rich from the Planning Dept also joined us. He stated that it’s the Planning Dept’s preference to come to us (these community meetings) and listen, rather than the community coming to Planning Dept run presentations/workshops.
So, come on out! And tell your friends and neighbors.

He also acknowledged the current lack of transit planning in the Department’s area plans for the eastern neighborhoods; apparently, getting the MTA and the Planning Department to coordinate efforts has been a notorious problem for years.
Multiple residents suggested the neighborhood use public pressure to get the MTA to join in planning for the eastern neighborhoods; just like the Planning Department, there is good work being done by line staff at the MTA but it is much harder at times to get everyone at the top to buy into the process.

IV.
We will be adding weeknight meetings by the end of April, in an effort to get as many folks here as possible. A reworked schedule of meetings with topics will be emailed out and posted by April 12th.

One of the most useful things we can do in this process to clarify our thinking and share ideas, is to bring pictures as examples of what we’d like and what we wouldn’t like. (For example, Elements of 4th Street in Berkeley have been referenced many times pointing to certain elements that folks think would be fine to duplicate here, while others are things to avoid). A link to find downloadable 3D maps to help in this effort will be posted shortly.

We’ll also have a laptop and projector at all our future meetings, so we can look at these images together. Next meeting is THIS Saturday, April 14th, 9:30am at the NABE.

Any ideas on providing childcare at these meetings would be appreciated (anyone know of a babysitter or three? And what would the cost be?).

A PDF of Focusing in On Those Hubs can be found here: HUBS_march31

Tags: Community Planning Meeting Minutes

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