Bayview Hunters Point Redevelopment Plan
moves to the Board of Supervisors

Regulation by San Francisco Redevelopment Agency
strongly urged

Marcia Rosen, Director of the San Francisco Redevelopment Agency,
extols the virtues of private redevelopment of Bayview/Hunters Point,
but residents are concerned gentrification will ensue.
Photo(s) by Luke Thomas

By Aldrich M. Tan

April 27, 2006

The Bayview Hunters Point Redevelopment Plan will move for approval at the Board for Supervisors meeting on May 9 after the Budget and Finance Committee passed it 3 to 2.

Sponsored by Supervisor Sophie 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 Budget and Finance Committee motioned to move the plan to the full Board with a recommendation to incorporate comments based on today's hearings into the recommendation.

Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi said that a means to audit the San Francisco Redevelopment Agency should be incorporated in the Redevelopment Plan. Mirkarimi recalled the agency's experience with the redevelopment of the Fillmore district, which also led to the mass eviction of many residents.

"The commission wants to claim and I believe as much that they do not want to repeat the mistakes that occurred in the Fillmore," Mirkarimi said.

Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi

The city auditor does not have the authorization to audit separate city agencies such as the San Francisco Redevelopment Agency or the San Francisco Unified School District, deputy controller Monique Zmuda said. The Board of Supervisors does not have the power either, deputy city attorney Cheryl Adams said.

Marcia Rosen, executive director of the San Francisco Redevelopment Agency, said the agency will continue to consult the Bayview Hunters Point Project Area Committee as they implement the plan.

At the Land Use and Economic Development committee hearing on the plan last week, Supervisor Bevan Dufty invite to the Office of the Controller to work with the Bayview Hunters Point Project Area Committee to regulate the San Francisco Redevelopment Agency's implementation of the plan.

Dufty said it would be important to bring in a city entity like the controller's office, who would be nonpartisan.

"I think people want to achieve goals but there is a history," Dufty said. "We need ongoing accountability."

Supervisor Bevan Dufty

Many local residents during public comment agreed with the increase in regulation of the San Francisco Redevelopment Agency.

Local resident Roland Shepard recalled the San Francisco Redevelopment Commission's previous experience with the Western Addition and how it caused a multitude of former residents of the Western Addition to move to the Bayview Hunters Point.

"Even a jackass doesn't stub the same stone twice and I don't believe that the San Francisco Redevelopment Agency was born again," Shepard said.

Roland Shepard

Angelo King, chairman for the Bayview Hunters Point Project Area Committee, agreed that it is important to implement safeguards in the plan's implementation.

"Those kinds of changes are welcomed as long as we are able to move forward," King said.

King said Dufty's invite for the committee to work with the controller's office was a blessing.

"We can keep the Redevelopment Agency accountable no matter who is there," King said.

Supervisor Aaron Peskin agreed that increased regulation of the San Francisco Redevelopment Agency would be beneficial.

"Bayview is an architecturally rich place and see what happened to Western Addition and seeing the neighborhood get torn apart," Peskin said. "We want to make sure that the redevelopment plan is all for the good and none for the bad."

The ordinance passed the Committee 3 to 2. Both Mirkarimi and Supervisor Chris Daly voted against the ordinance.

The plan will be presented for approval to the full Board of Supervisors on May 9. Supervisor Sophie Maxwell said the committee's comments were valuable and is glad that the plan will move to the full Board.

"I thank you all for your thoughtfulness and your comments will make this plan much more thorough," Maxwell said.

The plan will move to the Board after over ten years of development, lead planner Tom Evans said. The Board of Supervisors approved a resolution to develop the South Bayshore plan in 1995. The community developed the Bayview Hunters Point Project Area Committee in 1997 with 21 community representatives to oversee the plan's creation. The San Francisco Redevelopment Agency developed the first version of the redevelopment plan in February 2006.

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 Office of the Budget Analyst presented its results on the fiscal impact of the redevelopment plan at the Committee meeting.

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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