Bayview Hunters Point Redevelopment Plan amended
to improve oversight

By Aldrich M. Tan

May 10, 2006

Discussions over the approval of the Bayiew Hunters Point Redevelopment Plan will continue at next Tuesday's Board of Supervisors meeting after Supervisor Sophie Maxwell introduced five amendments to the legislation this Tuesday.

Maxwell said she made five changes to the legislation based on recommendations by the Budget and Finance Committee and dialogue regarding the plan at previous committee hearings.

The recommendations strengthen the involvement of the Bayview Hunters Point Project Area Committee, the Planning Department, and the Board of Supervisors to provide more oversight of the San Francisco Redevelopment Agency's plan, Maxwell said.

"These amendments bring in more voices that can only improve the discussion and development of the plan," Maxwell said.

Maxwell motioned for the hearing to continue to next week and the Board of Supervisors approved the amendments to the plan without objection.

"I think it is important that we continue to have good community dialogue," Maxwell said. "Not everyone has to agree but everyone has to be heard. The disputes of this plan have made it a stronger plan."

According to the latest recommendations, the Project Area Committee would serve as an advisory body for the San Francisco Redevelopment Agency during the implementation of the plan. The San Francisco Redevelopment Agency would request that the Board of Supervisors to extend the Project Area Committee on an annual basis.

"Eminent domain would only be pursued after PAC recommendation and PAC would have to vote for the action to move forward," said Tom Evans, lead planner from the San Francisco Redevelopment Agency.

Decisions over land use would be appealable to the Board of Supervisors or the Board of Appeals, Maxwell said.

The City Services Auditor would conduct periodic performance audits of the San Francisco Redevelopment Agency, Maxwell said. At the Land Use and Economic Development committee hearing on April 19, Supervisor Bevan Dufty invited the Office of the Controller to work with the Bayview Hunters Point Project Area Committee to find a way to regulate the San Francisco Redevelopment Agency's implementation of the plan.

"I'm happy that there will be a performance audit of the agency so that it will be held accountable," Dufty said.

The San Francisco Redevelopment Agency would enter a delegation agreement with the Planning Department to make sure planning codes are followed.

John Lau, spokesman for the Planning Department, said the department reviewed the
amendments to the plan and found them subsistent to the general plan policy.

The San Francisco Redevelopment Agency would also complete a historical survey of Project Area B that would be taken within five years of the plan's first implementation, Maxwell said.

Ena Giray, member of the Bayview Project Area Committee since 1997, said elections for the Project Area Committee should also be incorporated into the legislation.

"It is important for the community to go through the process of another election so we can heal some of the divisions that we have in the community since the development of this plan," Giray said.

Supervisor Chris Daly said the redevelopment plan is a slower form of gentrification of the Bayview Hunters Point area.

"I think we just need a new path because the path does not save this lower-income working class community," Daly said.

Marcia Rosen, executive director of the San Francisco Redevelopment Agency, said the recommendations that are part of the redevelopment plan came directly from discussions and debate with the Project Area Committee.

"This PAC took into account the needs of the neighborhood to make these policy recommendations," Rosen said.

Bayview resident Roland Shepard said statistics show that the household median income for the community is $15,000.

"What you see is affordable housing for the residents who are moving in and not for those who currently live there," Shepard said.

Shepard said he got his statistics from Marie Harrison, a candidate for supervisor of District 10 and Greenaction's Environmental Justice and Green Energy Community Organizer.

Based on findings from the Census 2000, the fogcityjournal.com concludes that the median average income for Bayview Hunters Point in the year 2000 was $47,157.

However, the median household income for renter households in the Bayview area in 2000 was $27,708.50 while the homeowner median household income was $59,958.50. The area had 5,170 homeowner households and 4,521 renter households in 2000.

Redevelopment is going to happen regardless, said Ellouise Patton, executive director of Young Community Developers, Inc.

"We have a choice to be included in the process or to let the redevelopers have their way with the community," Patton said.

Sponsored by Maxwell, the $188 million plan will develop 1,437 acres of southeast San Francisco, said Tom Evans, lead planner from the San Francisco Redevelopment Agency. The plan includes programs focused on affordable housing, local business development, and community improvement.

The Board of Supervisors approved a resolution to develop the South Bayshore plan in 1995, Evans said. The community developed the Bayview Hunters Point Project Area Committee in 1997 with 21 community representatives to oversee the plan's creation. The committee developed the Concept Plan in 2000 and the Framework Housing Plan, which was a guiding document for housing policies in the area. The Project Area Committee adopted a draft version of the redevelopment plan in October 2004.

The redevelopment plan calls for the establishment of 3,700 new housing units. 925 would be affordable housing units through an inclusionary housing policy. It will help businesses on Third Street improve façade and store fronts and a local workforce hiring program, Evans said. A streetscape component of the plan has street repairs for Third Street, Innes Avenue, Carroll Avenue and Bayshore Boulevard.

The redevelopment plan would be financed through the San Francisco Redevelopment Agency through a combination of tax increment revenues and the issuing of tax allocation bonds, according to the budget analyst's memo. An estimated $131 million of tax revenues from Bayview Hunters Point area that would have gone to the city's general fund will instead fund the Redevelopment plan.

The estimated income of the plan is $293 million in income tax revenues over the 45 years of the redevelopment plan, city controller Ed Harrington said. Approximately $28.6 million would come from the new Candlestick Stadium and shopping mall if they are built.

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