Make Your Bayview EIR Public Comment Today at SF City Hall

Two hearings are being held this week at San Francisco City Hall so that the public can register their comments on the massive Draft Environmental Impact Report (EIR) document for the proposed Bayview “redevelopment” project. The first opportunity to voice your comments is today, December 15, at the SF Redevelopment Agency Commission meeting at SF City Hall, Room 416 (the meeting starts at 4:00 PM). We all can also make an EIR public comment this Thursday, December 17, at the Planning Commission meeting, also at City Hall (this meeting starts at 1:30 PM).

The Draft EIR is a behemoth document, at well over 4000 pages. Scores of groups and citizens are demanding a ninety day extension to the public comment period, in order for all of us to be able to actually be able to read the massive volumes. You can download the entire EIR document here on the SF Planning Department’s website. The plan is entitled: Candlestick Point-Hunters Point Shipyard Phase II Development Project (formerly known as the “Bayview Waterfront Project”) Draft EIR.

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Arc Ecology’s Saul Bloom explaining the EIR to Bayview residents and community organizers.

Many neighborhood groups, environmentalists and activists have been organizing residents around the proposed redevelopment in Bayview. Groups such as Arc Ecology have done extensive outreach and have held informational meetings to help educate the public about these complicated issues. They also have an extensive research library that is available to the public.

Local residents attend an EIR informational meeting in November at Arc Ecology.

The grassroots activism that has been happening in the neighborhood is very encouraging, but we need to do more. Bayview residents must voice their concerns about the proposed redevelopment now, before it is too late. Very few people have the time or the inclination to spend weeks pouring over the thousands of pages that comprise the monolithic EIR. I spent days plowing through it until my eyes nearly started to bleed. But if we do nothing, we may end up with over 10,000 condominiums on what was once a state park, 64,000 acres of new parking lots and a huge concrete truck bridge built over what was once a wetland.

The Draft EIR calls for building a truck bridge directly through Yosemite Slough, a wetland in Bayview. Senator Mark Leno has already rammed legislation (SB 792) through that has sold off a huge chunk of Candlestick Park to developers for building thousands of condos.

How to Make Your Own Public Comment

Oral and written comments on the adequacy of the Draft EIR are now being actively solicited from the public. I wrote Stanley Muraoka, the Environmental Review Officer for the San Francisco Redevelopment Agency, about how we can also make a public comment in writing. This is what he told me:

In addition to the oral testimony at the December 15 and December 17 public hearings, we are accepting written comments.  These can be submitted at either the December 15 or December 17 public hearing.  You can also send written comments to me at the address shown below.  You can also send me an email with your comments.

The comment period ends on Monday December 28. Either the Agency Commission or the Planning Commission could direct staff to extend the comment period at the December 15 or December 17 meeting.  I do not know whether either Commission will give staff that direction.

The purpose of the public comment period is to receive comments on the content and analyses in the Draft EIR.  Separate hearings will be scheduled on the proposed Project itself.

Thanks,
Stan
__________________________________

Stanley Muraoka
Environmental Review Officer
San Francisco Redevelopment Agency
One South Van Ness Avenue, Fifth Floor
San Francisco, CA 94103

Ph:   415-749-2577
Fax: 415-749-2585
Email: Stanley.Muraoka@sfgov.org

Although very few people are even aware of the legislation, unfortunately SB 792 has already passed. I do not understand how Mark Leno can just sell off our park to developers. Can you imagine a senator just writing legislation one day to sell off Golden Gate Park for the construction of thousands of condominiums?

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