potrero view

June 2009

Streets to Serve as Parks

By Lisa Tehrani

While new zoning in the Showplace Square area permits housing, essential community amenities, like open space and transit have yet to be developed, with the amount of public funding available for this purpose likely to be scarce.  To help plan for green space, the San Francisco Planning Department is holding a series of meetings, beginning with a walking tour of Showplace Square scheduled for June 16th.  A June 24th workshop will focus on identifying the community’s needs and priorities, and discussing potential sites for recreation and open space.  Additional workshops will deal with conceptual designs and financial issues.  

So far Potrero Boosters Neighborhood Association Vice President Dick Millet isn’t impressed with the process. “It is a bunch of nonsense. They show us a bunch of pictures, but they don’t have any money and don’t really have any plans. It is just a pony show,” he stated.   Others are more positive. Corinne Woods, a Mission Creek resident and Neighborhood Parks Council coordinator, is glad that the Planning Department is searching for ways to provide more open space.  According to Woods, once a plan is developed there will be “an opportunity to go out to the philanthropic community and City agencies and talk to them about funding options.”

Some open space will be paid for with development fees charged on new construction.  But these funds will not be sufficient to finance the entire plan.  According to Woods, “You can’t put it all on the backs of the developers. Those fees have to go to a lot of different things.”  Given the current poor economy, it’s unknown when new housing construction will begin to contribute fee revenue.

According to the Planning Department, four acres of open space is needed to accompany the planned residential development in Showplace Square to meet accepted standards.  While noting that amount of space would be ideal, Steve Wertheim, the planner leading the effort, acknowledged that most of the City – particularly Southeast San Francisco – is underserved in terms of open space. “There’s not a lot of vacant land in San Francisco, and acquiring land is also very expensive. Therefore, if we do get that amount of space much of it will have to come from underused open space and rights-of-way,” he explained.

Using public rights-of-way, generally in the form of streets, is the latest way of finding land for public use, according to Wertheim.  Historically streets were considered to be a significant part of the public realm, where people gathered and interacted. With modern auto dependency that changed, and streets are now associated with transportation and movement rather than community interaction.  The Planning Department has recommended converting the streets surrounding Townsend Circle and Wolfe’s Café, at 16th and Irwin streets. There’s also a push to develop green connector streets, consisting of avenues with “wider sidewalks, places to sit and enjoy, significant landscaping and gracious street trees that would provide linkages between larger open spaces,” as described in the Showplace Square Area Plan.

The street conversion model was recently touted by Mayor Gavin Newsom when he opened the Castro Commons at 17th Street and Castro. The plaza was carved out of an intersection using a few bolsters and planters. “That was the first time in memory that the City took a public right-of-way and made it a park,” said Wertheim.  “That is the kind of thing that would be anticipated in Showplace.”

Woods thinks that converting underused streets is a good idea, but that it’s not nearly enough.  “[The Wolfe’s Café plaza] is not exactly a place you could bring your family,” she said.  She’d like to see where larger spaces, such as recreational fields, could be sited.  According to Millet, open space required as part of developments should not be considered under the plan. “People that want to go out and play soccer are not going to be able to do that on a roof garden or a balcony.”

Another area that may be used by Showplace Square residents is Jackson Playground. Planners have floated the idea of renovating the park and widening it to the west.  Wertheim explained that while the park serves the entire City for softball games, it could potentially be expanded as a more community-oriented space, using benches and picnic tables.  However, Millet doesn’t think park expansion is possible, since the adjacent land is owned by a developer with plans to construct housing.

Channel Street is also being eyed for possible parkland use. The publicly-owned land that’s adjacent to Golden Gate Disposal and Recycling on 7th Street is currently fenced off and vacant. That street could serve as an extension to the Mission Creek park area across the railroad tracks.  However, a deal is in the works to give the parcel to the garbage company in exchange for land in Visitation Valley associated with the former Schlage Lock site.  Given these types of side-deals, some community members are wary that a public participation process will result in comprehensive open space solutions.  

To learn more about the Showplace Square open space planning process visit http://showplace.sfplanning.org.

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