March 2, 2006 (joint hearing)

SAN FRANCISCO

PLANNING COMMISSION

and

REDEVELOPMENT COMMISSION

MINUTES of Special Joint Hearing

Board of Supervisors Chambers - Room 250
City Hall, 1 Dr. Carlton B. Goodlett Place

Thursday, March 2, 2006

6:30 PM

THE JOINT HEARING WAS CALLED TO ORDER AT 6:50 P.M.

PLANNING COMMISSIONERS PRESENT: President Sue Lee, Michael Antonini, Shelley Bradford-Bell, Kevin Hughes, William Lee and Christina Olague

PLANNING COMMISSIONERS ABSENT: Dwight Alexander

REDEVELOPMENT AGENCY COMMISSIONERS PRESENT: President Richard Peterson, London Breed, Francee Covington, Leroy King and Darshan Singh

REDEVELOPMENT AGENCY COMMISSIONERS ABSENT: Ramon Romero and Benny Yee

FOLLOWING ROLL CALL IT WAS DECIDED THAT PLANNING COMMISSION SUE LEE WOULD CHARI THE JOINT SESSION.

A. PUBLIC COMMENT ON AGENDA ITEMS WHERE THE PUBLIC HEARING HAS BEEN CLOSED

At this time, members of the public who wish to address the Commission on agenda items that have already been reviewed in a public hearing at which members of the public were allowed to testify and the public hearing has been closed, must do so at this time. Each member of the public may address the Commission for up to three minutes.

SPEAKERS:

Ena Aguirre - Bayview Hunters Point

I am here because I am concerned about the EIR, about the procedures and about the content.
On the procedure issue – it is my understanding that last night we were supposed to have a public discussion on the EIR.
That public discussion was not held in the community.
So I don't know what the legal ramifications are or whether there will still be time to have a community meeting on the EIR.
The second part of my concern has to do with the content of the EIR.
The EIR mentions the 49ers corporation.
We on the Project Area Committee have never discussed the 49er area.
The Mayor's Office certainly has never come and talked to us about what is going to happen there.
We don't know anything.
I have been bringing this up since approximately September, about how come the 49ers don't show up? How come the Mayor's Office doesn't come over?
So [if] there is content in the EIR, we in the Project Area Committee know nothing about it. It has never been discussed.
I just would like you to be aware of that.

Rodney Hampton, Jr.

I m a prime candidate for District 10 Supervisor.
Today I'd like to voice my concerns about redevelopment.
We in District 10 like diversity. We want change.
We like to embrace new things and new horizons.
But at this point, with this project and this EIR, it has caused a great division in my community.
It has caused me to come here today to share my concerns because it is just not right - the process that has been done is just not right.
Voices from the whole community have actually not been heard regarding this EIR.
I speak on behalf of our community like Hunters Point; communities like Sunnydale; communities like Oakdale; tenant associations on Harbor Road and Marina Village.
This impacts the communities that have not actually had the opportunity to digest this information, let alone delve into the EIR.
We asked in detail about the traffic analysis, about the sewer plants, about the PG&E plants.
These are things you need to be looking at.
In addition to that, I don't know and I don't believe it was discussed in detail about our health and safety.
Bear in mind that we like change, but yet they don't deal with our social concerns, our social issues.
That is something that Redevelopment does not deal with.
And that is massive in Bayview Hunters point, Little Hollywood, and Vis Valley.
How can we be stakeholders in the community plan?
We want to make change, but not like that.
Incorporate us.

Francisco Da Costa

An Environmental Impact Report is developed so that the community that is impacted may understand some or many of the adverse impacts in the area that the Report addresses.
I urge you commissioners, do not certify this EIR.
The main reason is there are important issues like a traffic analysis; pollution; cultural resources; and I could name 40 other impacts that have not been addressed in this EIR.
This area that you are talking about is over 2,500 acres.
In order to give you some idea, the Presidio is 1,480 acres.
We are talking about a vast area that is going to impact mostly poor people, and the poor people have not been approached with compassion so they could understand the issues at hand.
Commissioners, I'm asking you to put yourselves in the shoes of many people that will be impacted by this very fake and faulty EIR.

Philip McKnight

Just what type of safeguard is being put in place to protect the people of the Bayview Hunters Point?
As an example, I was a merchant in South of Market for 36 years.
Redevelopment came in and purchased the building where my store was located.
After I made the move, I was told I shouldn't transfer my liquor license.
I couldn't be grandfathered in.
I had an arbitration hearing at the Relocation Appeals Board where Eugene Coleman is the Secretary.
He said, yes, the moratorium has been in place since 1984.
I said to him, if you knew this then Redevelopment knew this and all in all, you still proceeded with getting me out of the building.
Now, my business has been destroyed.
After 36 years of successfully running a business, they have just walked away from this thing.
I mention this because it just doesn't seem right.
I understand that Redevelopment has the right by Eminent Domain or private negotiations to take property, but in doing so they can't create an undue hardship.
I don't know what else to call this except this is horrendous.
I see déjà vu.
You are going to do the same thing to the people in the Bayview Hunters Point area.
It was disingenuous and it was a conspiracy to write this moratorium. Redevelopment knew about it but they still proceeded.

Jaron Browne - POWER

We are a membership organization of low wage tenants and workers that are mostly based in Bayview Hunters Point.
We are very aware this has been a ten-year process in developing the Redevelopment Plan for the Bayview Hunters Point.
People feel rushed and that isn't talked about.
The Comments and Responses documents were only released in the last couple of weeks. Many of them were overnight mailed before this hearing.
We raised the issue there was going to be a workshop about it.
People had a tremendous number of questions at the PAC meeting that couldn't be responded to. Their response was that we need to vote on this now.
My main comment to these two commissions here is I think that it needs to be disclosed why.
If the issue is you need the tax increment money and need to vote on this by July, you need to put that out to the community.
You need to say how much money that is and where it is going.
Don't just say to the community that we have to rush it.
We may not have all the answers and we may have a lot of questions outstanding, but we want you to trust us because this is worth I don't know how much. Is it $600,000?
I think it needs to be put on the table because we are feeling rushed now and maybe it went slow for ten years, but in the last month it is being squeezed and we are being told we can't wait two weeks.
We have a lot of questions and we want those questions disclosed.
If you are asking us to swallow our questions you have to tell us why.

Marie Harrison

I'm going to stand here and ask you to oppose this EIR Plan
There is a process error right here.
You are talking about a community that is afraid they are being squeezed out, of being pushed out, and they are looking at this whole process as another Fillmore.
Redevelopment Agency has already admitted a while back in their book that their job is to remove, replace, re-this, re-that -- along the bottom line it said re-people.
Do you understand what that means to these folks?
When you put out a document this technical, you need to allow the public enough time to meet with folks who can review it, understand it, and then give them a decent understanding.
Any person deserves the ability to understand what is happening to them so they can make a reasonable and concerned objection or applaud it.
You must give them the opportunity to understand where you are going, why you are going, and what they need to understand about what is going to affect their lives.
You have not done that.
If it were just one or two people, I would say okay.
But unfortunately, it is more than just a couple of people. We are talking about a whole community down there who does not understand what is happening to them and why you are pushing them to make some kind of decision.
That was evident at the PAC meeting last night.
It should be evident to you right now.
There is too much space, the gap is entirely too big.
I'm asking you to close the gap. Give them the opportunity to understand what it is you are doing to them.
Let's not repeat the Fillmore.

Espanola Jackson

You should not approve this tonight.
They are doing a scoping meeting in Brisbane tonight about development in Brisbane that will affect Bayview Hunters Point. They wanted me to come but I had to be here tonight.
When you do an EIR, you are supposed to deal with all of the impacts to a community.
I talked to the Director of City Planning. He didn't know anything about it.
When I was at Brisbane last month, we were able to stop a project from going on there because there was going to be a big impact here in San Francisco.
But when you don't talk together
I even asked the Mayor of Brisbane to contact the Mayor of San Francisco to let him know what is going on in the outskirts.
We take all the sewage from all the little towns here.
People think we only take 80% of San Francisco sewage. But we take 100% of sewage from Colma, Daly City, and Brisbane -- I can't think of the other names -- but it is five little towns that we get sewage from.
Now how can you pass on or agree to something when you don't know what the impact is going to be because you are not involved?
People contact you and say, come to my County. We want you to know what is going on and how it is going to affect you.
We are here tonight because you requested to have more homeowners, people from the community. You wanted to hear from them because you were tired of listening to me.
So I'm not the only one here tonight.

Charlie Walker

I decided to take a little different view.
If you look around this room, most of us are Black people.
We know the horror from the slavery of our ancestors and how our people have been treated.
This is a part of slavery to us as it was in the Western Addition.
See, White people, y'all don't know because y'all didn't have the trouble.
I don't know no time that I've seen these many Black people get up and come to a meeting.
That tells you there is great concern, particularly about one thing. How soon will it be before we get put out and be given a certificate saying you can come back?
It didn't happen [we couldn't come back] in the Western Addition, It will not happen in Bayview.
Did you guys read your own agenda?
If you haven't read it, read paragraph 4.
I'll give you $50 if you can understand what it means.
It don't say nothing.
I'm saying to you, this is the type of mumbo-jumbo that our people have been given in Hunters Point, and were given in the Western Addition.
I doubt if anyone in here really knows what is getting ready to happen to them.
We've been held back so long that the one or two of us that know something don't have the time to tell all of us.
You got lay people trying to interpret something that nobody understands.
Y'all have got to stop treating us like we are still owned by White people and we are part of your slaves.
Because that is what it appears to us whether you like it or not.

James Bryant - A Philip Randolph Institute

I'm here to talk about an opportunity.
You have a community that is quite uneasy because of the past history.
You have a community that has not had a lot of justice. So they don't see the hope
We have this hope.
There is an opportunity here, and there is a difference between the times of Fillmore and the times of today.
Charlie was wrong about one thing.
There are more than two people who understand some of these things.
We are not going to let any of these agencies take our land.
We are not going to let any of these agencies make the wrong decision.
We are going to work together.
Tonight we need to consider a plan that is going to enhance a community that needs more than just talk about gloom and doom.
We need to figure out how we are going to get these funds into this community.
We need to make a development of housing, of economic opportunity as well as enhancing our community.
Tonight we need to take a look at all of ourselves and say we are going to bring this together once and for all, with the leadership of who is placed in the position to lead, but also with the community who is going to hold you accountable.
I hope that you make a decision, and I am supporting the movement of this process.

Barbara Meskunas

I'm the Executive Director of the San Francisco Taxpayer's Union and many of you know that I was also the former President of the Coalition for San Francisco Neighborhoods.
The Coalition for San Francisco Neighborhoods has many positions against the establishment and against extending the terms of Redevelopment project areas.
I'm here today to tell you that the EIR process is something that I personally take objection to.
There are taxpayers in Bayview just like there are taxpayers everywhere else in this city.
There are a lot of single-family homeowners in Bayview.
I think that we do them a disservice if we don't tell them exactly what is going on in those project areas before you make changes like this that are going to completely turn around the way that area looks.
Bayview is part of San Francisco. It is not an isolated community.
We never hear from the Redevelopment Agency.
No one comes to us. No one ever does outreach to us. We have never seen this EIR.
No one has had a chance to look at the revisions made to this thing that is going to take hundreds of millions of dollars from our General Fund for the next few decades if it is approved.
I would just ask you to put the brakes on. At least postpone consideration of this certification this evening so that the community and so that the larger community of neighborhoods across San Francisco has a chance to review these documents so that we can't say that we didn't see it coming or that we can't make an informed decision about whether we support it or not.

Angelo King

I am Chair of the PAC
I realize there are implications in terms of a Redevelopment Plan, but tonight we are here to talk about the EIR.
If you have read the comments to the EIR, they breakdown in four sections.
The first section is the Home Depot battle.
The second section is the interest of a developer that wanted to build a 500-foot tower in our community.
The third is the protection of industrial zones.
And the forth is an assortment of affordable housing and quality of life issues.
When people start talking about where has this been vetted, do you not remember being here till 4.00 a.m. in the morning while we were defending our right to have that area be as we had planned it?
Do you remember how we had them remove an area out of our project area and call it Project Area C so that we could move this EIR along?
We have had a workshop on industrial areas because there are people that wanted to build something there.
Every single time we are ready to move forward, someone else says wait, wait, we want to put another battle in front of you.
Quite frankly, if we take another year, two years, there will be something that we hadn't anticipated and we will never move forward.
Look how many documents. How many more do we need?

Patricia Wright

I wand to say one thing -- why?
I also want to tell my community -- don't sell out.

Patrick Monk

I'm a Registered Nurse.
I live in Noe Valley and my wife Lisa is a native San Franciscan.
The only reason we can say we are living is because of rent control.
None of your affordable housing is affordable to any of us.
My first point is that I contend that any EIR is not just about air, water and parking spaces.
It is just the whole fabric or a community.
It is history -- social and spiritual aspects.
If the EIR does not deal with that, then I contend that it is a scam and a sham.
We all know what happened in the Fillmore and we know what is still going on in the Mission today.
[He read a letter he sent to the Chronicle the other day.]
I hope you reconsider passing this.

[Name was not understood]

I'm currently in a YCD training class.
Wants to know if and when the EIR project goes into effect, will you guys guarantee jobs for us skilled and professional graduates?

Walter James

I am also a trainee for YCD and a Bayview Hunters Point resident for 41 years.
One of my main concerns is under the EIR plan with the Bayview industrial triangle at the focus; will it continue as a developmental process for jobs and housing?
This is like a big cloud hanging over our head, that we are all going to get evicted and not have any choice.

Rubin Ellis

I am representing the Black families in the Bayview Hunters Point community.
I support the EIR and I want to advocate any jobs for the community. And personally I think that the approach is inhumane.

Tamika Williams

I'm 25 years old and I've been living in the Bayview community for all my life.
My parents live there, my grandparents.
I believe that we need a change, but don't put us out because we need to live.
We also need jobs.
There are a lot of people in the community that need jobs. You guys are wondering why we are hanging out on the streets.
It's because there is nothing for us to do.
When we go out to apply for jobs, we don't get hired because of our background.
So I'm asking for more jobs.

Latoya Johnson

I'm representing YCD
I'm in training for hazardous material.
I feel like if I go through boot camp, training and getting all the material to get a job, then why shouldn't the EIR thing be passed so when I'm done with my graduation, I can just go right into the work field?
Don't have me get educated and then don't have no job for me after I'm done.

Toya Bank

I'm a participant in YCD.
I approve of the EIR because I would like to utilize my skills in the Redevelopment construction.

Gary Bennett

I'm going to say that I support any agenda that is not based on propaganda.
I too would like to be a part of the Redevelopment or the construction of the Bayview Hunters Point area.
As long as it is fundamentally, morally, ethically and environmentally safe for our families and our children.

John Winston

The scripture says that the devil comes to rob, steal, destroy and kill.
When I think about that scripture, I think about some people's track record from the past, how they have stole and continue to steal from everyone, abusing people, every nationality upon the earth.
You have robbed San Francisco like never before.
You have taken and not given anything back to the Black community all over the Bay Area.
We are tired of you robbing and stealing from us.
You act like you love us and never give us anything.
You breathe like us, but your walk -- it brings death to the community.
I see no life in our community.
All over the Bay Area, I see our people disappearing.
Why do you have a time limit for when you are going to give us information concerning our neighborhood?
You set rules and you set laws, yet you break all the rules.
You rob, steal, kill, and hurt more people than any person upon the earth.
But the time is dying out for all this.
God is angry.
We know who the devil is.
I'm going to continue to pray for you that God touches your heart and softens your hard hearts.
You are greedy.
God bless you.

Marcellus Prentice

I've been a job developer for years.
I've been in the Bayview community for over 30.
I've educated over 100 community members that are currently in several different union trades.
Some are working; some are waiting for work projects.
We need to move forward so people can eat.
People have no other source of income.
The streets are dried up and people in our training program are trying to survive and trying to get a source of income and provide for their families.
Projects are being held up, making our community suffer even more and people sit on the bench and can't feed their family and that results in crime.

Elloise Patton

Let's keep our promise.
We have been promising people in this community that when it came down to the Redevelopment Plan, there were going to be jobs.
We have talked about the Bayshore; we have talked about 3^rd Street.
Now right when we get to the point where we are beginning -- because there is still a process -- then something happens.
We have expounded over and over again on the promises that have been made to us as a community organization to the rest of the community.
The people that you have seen speak here this evening are angry, and they have a right to be.
Jobs, jobs, jobs, jobs.
When it comes to the point that they can get educated, be ready to go to work, then for some reason there is always a snag, there is always something that comes up that precludes it or prevents it.
Employment and education are the tools we need to use to develop.
I encourage you to support the EIR.

Doris Benson

I'm a 40 plus year resident of Bayview Hunters Point.
I sit on the PAC.
For the last 8 years we have been working for this day.
Many of the people who are sitting here in this room tonight have participated in our workshops and in our meetings.
Part of what is before you tonight is a re-draft that included the things that they wanted to see put in this plan.
I urge you as professionals to do the right thing.
Pass the EIR.

Joanne Abernathy

I have been a resident of the Bayview Hunters Point for 30 years and I want to continue to be a Bayview resident for 30 more years.
But it looks like y'all are pushing and pushing the Black community out of the Bayview area.
I advocate a lot of things to a lot of people in the Bayview, but this is one thing I couldn't advocate because they didn't understand what I was talking about because I didn't understand what the book said.
I think if you want to make some type of plan for the Bayview district that the communities need to make that choice and while they are making that choice, you need to ask them what they want and need.

[Unknown speaker]

I say shalom to you, which in Hebrew is peace.
I come to you in the name of the spirit of truth.
It is a slap and an insult to the African American people for you to feel that they are not empowered enough or do not have the intelligence to be able to clean their own house or solve their own problems.
What needs to be done concerning the African American people is they do need to be redeveloped. The mind, heart and soul need to be redeveloped.
We do not go to Chinatown and try to rezone and replace.
We do not go to the Hispanic community and try to rezone and replace.
We do not go to Pacific Heights, Twin Peaks, Nob Hill or any of those areas.
Yet you continue to come to the African American people and continue to take from them their dignity and their integrity.
The answer is unification.
We need to organize and solve our own problems.
I say through my people in the African American community, do not come and ask them what can they do, I'm saying what can we do together?
And I'm saying what Martin Luther King stated – The oppressed must demand from the oppressor.

[Did not state a name]

I'm a 59-year resident.
I'm hearing all these horror stories about what happened in Fillmore, but nobody is saying what happened in Hunters Point.
The same thing that happened in Western Addition didn't happen in Hunters Point because we were strong politically. We had the unity that we brought from all the southern states that we put together. When Redevelopment came and started giving us and our children $4,500 to move out so they could go ahead and do the work that they needed to do, and then the unions came and we all got jobs.
The union people came there and we told them that if we don't work, you ain't gonna work.
That's how we all got into the unions.

[Unknown Speaker]

There are a lot of things that aren't good about Redevelopment, but there are a lot of things that are good about Redevelopment.
I became an apprentice, journeyman plumber, and contractor. I've been in business 20 years.
I would never have had that opportunity if it weren't for the activity of Redevelopment.
Say what you want.
We need you to pass this EIR tonight so some of these same kids out here who is without a job and might want to learn a trade to go into some kind of business will have the same opportunity that Redevelopment afforded me.
We need Planning to pass this EIR so we can go to Redevelopment and have them do the same job.
All these horror stories and everything. It didn't happen in Bayview Hunters Point and we still are just as strong politically in Bayview Hunters Point as we were back in the day.
We are not afraid of change.
We are not afraid of getting put out..
We want to go to Redevelopment and carry this fight home for our youngsters out there and I want to afford them the same opportunity I had.

[Unidentified Speaker]

I understand about the community college that we have, that they are supposed to take that property and do a rail plan so they can have a train station there.
Just about all of the things that were in the Bayview District have been shut down for Redevelopment.
From what I can understand, the City College building was just recently built.
I know what I'm talking about because I have lived in the Bayview district since 1952. That's a long time. And I have seen a lot of changes.
A lot of things that are going on out here in this area are totally unnecessary. Why?
It's because people want to come now and put high-rises up.
I was at one meeting where a fellow wanted to take the land at 3^rd and Cargo and put up 150 units.
What is that going to do to the traffic in our area?
Right now I live on Palu.
It is already difficult in the morning time for me to cross that street in order to take my grandchildren to school.
That's not necessary. It is too much traffic.
We need you to think about what is happening in our neighborhood.

Rev. Areliious Walker – Pastor of True Hope Church of God and Christ

My church is located at 950 Jennings Avenue.
Several years ago someone called me and said to me that we need to do something to bring some positive direction as far as economic development and growth.
We need to do something about this neighborhood for the economics because of the poverty, because of lack of housing and people in affordable housing.
He convinced me that the only institution at that time we believed would fulfill that obligation would be the Redevelopment Agency.
We knew about what happened in the Western Addition and we wanted to be secure ourselves and make sure that eminent domain would not be a part of the Redevelopment's vocabulary in this particular area.
I do believe that there needs to be some more basic understanding.
But I believe it is time for us to move on
I believe that people like Mr. King and others that are on the Redevelopment Agency are really concerned about the community, about the neighborhood.
I believe they are there to make sure that justice and fairness be done.
I would encourage you tonight and I support the EIR spirit.
I hope that we move forward tonight.

Mr. Iverson

I live at the same house I was born in. The one my Dad bought. He is still there.
The shipyard was closed down and became home to the mothball fleet.
There are dozens of ships that could be scrapped out and that would open up a lot of jobs.
When I was there, around 2000, we did a lot of removal and I just wondered if it was the same shipyard that is closed down.
There are still hundreds of ships sitting out in the mothball fleet now that could be recycled.
I don't know why it was shut down, but [I urge you to] look into it.

Chris Hanif

I'm the Director of Construction at YCD
I'm torn, but I must also say that there have been opportunities to contribute to what we are looking at today.
There have been workshops as Ms. Vincent has already spoken about.
The people have expressed a lot of views of historic wrongdoing or historic disenfranchisements.
And at the same time, there have been opportunities for people to contribute, to take a look at and reevaluate this particular process.
Your job is not an easy one, given all the opinions that you've been confronted with today.
I must say at the root of all this, for us to extrapolate and pontificate while somebody is worried about how to put food on their table, whether or not their kids are going to eat, whether or not they have enough gas in their car is not acceptable.
I would request that you pass the EIR.

Oscar James

I'm a native resident of Bayview Hunters Point and I am a property owner.
My grandmother was the first Black person in Bayview Hunters Point that purchased a home before I was born.
I'll be 60 years old in September.
I go wholeheartedly with what Elloise Patent, Norman, and Rev. Walker said.
When Redevelopment came into our community in 1968, we asked for things that we are going to ask for now – for people from our community to be employed by the Redevelopment Agency in higher positions so they can watchdog our community.
Now, we sat on interviewing Boards, Joint Housing sat on interviewing Boards with the Redevelopment Commission when they selected people for the Agency.
We would like to have that back again so we can have guarantees to know that we are going to be represented on that Board.
The first Affirmative Action program in this city came out of Bayview Hunters Point when Redevelopment Agency first came out there.
We need top notch people employed at the Redevelopment Agency.
I beg for this commission to look at that and look at that very seriously.

Marty Haivorson

I'm a resident and employer in the Bayview.
We've heard a lot of comments tonight and a lot of concerns the people have about the changes that have been taking place in our neighborhood.
People have been coming to our neighborhood a long time and buying up property, driving up prices. The price of houses has doubled in the last few years.
Rents are going through the roof.
People are scared they are not going to be able to afford to live there any more.
I share a lot of those concerns.
But you know what, Redevelopment didn't buy any of that land.
Redevelopment hasn't thrown anyone out of the neighborhood.
Redevelopment is not going to throw anyone out of the neighborhood.
Redevelopment is going to give us--the people in the neighborhood--the tools we need to soften the blow of this out of control development.
Give us the tools to create more affordable housing than we would otherwise have.
Give us the tools to direct the development that is coming in a way that benefits the community.
Give us the tools to require community benefits that we wouldn't otherwise get.
Redevelopment is going to make the community better
The profit motive is driving people to buy this property and it will continue to be bought.
But we can control what's done with it.
We can make a difference with the tools that Redevelopment has.
It is important to move this thing forward.
This process has been going on for nine years.
There have been hundreds and hundreds of meetings.
I've been to most of them.
Hundreds of people have spent thousands of hours of their time working on this plan. Every one of these issues have been discussed and argued over at a meeting.
This is not Johnny come lately stuff.
The EIR you are looking at has been out there over two years.
Information is like water, you can lead people to it, but you can't make them drink it. And that is an unfortunate fact of life but it is one we have to live with.

John McCarthy

I recently retired from the Army as of a year ago in January.
I am expecting to be involved with the shipyard.
My principal concern initially was the environmental impact from the shipyard on the Bayview Hunters Point PAC area.
I have recently attended PAC meetings and I think one or two CAC meetings on this subject.
Area B of the Bayview Hunters Point PAC encroaches in one rectangular spot in the northeast end (or parcel B of the PAC redevelopment).
It encroaches into an area surrounded on three sides by shipyard parcel areas.
The concern I have is that there are levels of contamination resulting from sites that are spread almost randomly the length and width of that shipyard.
This contamination is not simple fuel or solvent or the stuff you usually read about. We are talking about contamination that in many cases run the length and width of that yard.
In many cases radioactive elements in particle and dust form.
My point to SFRA and Planning is not to rezone the Medium Density Housing at the east end where it encroaches into Area B.
If need be, I will go the appropriate State agency on that zoning issue.
It is a public health issue.

[Speaker did not identify himself]

I'm here to represent the next generation -- my grandkids and my community.
I've been living in Bayview hunters Point for 40 years
We never had the tools to be successful.
I have four grandsons. The oldest one is nine. And I don't want him to have to walk around like this. I don't want the next generation to have to walk around like this [speaker was holding up identification from a penitentiary].
Commissioners you have to do something about it.
It is up to you to make the right decision.
I ask you all to look deep down in your heart when you go home tonight.
Think about what I got to walk around with – a penitentiary ID.
When the police approach me, I have to say I'm on parole.
When I go for job interviews, I'm shut down.
Don't let my grandson go through what I have to go through.
Don't let my next generation go through what I have to go through.
It is not easy in our community today for our young generation to take the time out and go educate themselves and go apply for a job.
When you go home tonight, look into your heart, please.

Ed Donaldson

I am a third generation resident and homeowner in the Bayview Hunters Point district.
For the better part of my life, I have watched the steady decline of this community and I know that there is a lot of work that has gone into this EIR process.
Therefore, I ask that you guys support it and approve it.

[Speaker not identified]

The Redevelopment Agency does not have Affirmative Action. All they have is contract compliance. And that contract compliance is a joke in the Western Addition.
I'm from the Western Addition
I've been there for 50 years
I'm also a dual resident in the Bayview.
What the Redevelopment Agency says on paper, what they say they are going to do for you, is all a lie.
It's history.
What I'm saying to all those for and against this, do like in the Western Addition and have a lawsuit and talk about it so everybody has a clear understanding about what is going on

Etta May Erickson

The commissioners tonight don't seem to be interested in what is going on in the Bayview district.
You know why?
Because nothing belongs to you.
I've been living in the Bayview since 1959.
And they tell me that I'm going to be moved.
But I tell you, I don't know what you are going to do to Bayview, but ain't nobody going to be moving me.
I am not moving.
My house is where I'm living. It doesn't mean anything to you, but my husband and I have worked and accomplished what we have. Neither the Planning Commission nor the Redevelopment is going to tell me what they are going to do with it.
I'm a taxpayer. I've been paying taxes ever since I owned a home.
I hope you; the Planning Commission and Redevelopment go and think about what you are doing.
It's not going to be like Fillmore.
You didn't want it at first, but now you want to push us out and come back and get it.

[Speaker is unidentified]

I'm not going to stand up here and say I don't want Redevelopment in my neighborhood.
I know that greedy land grabbers are going to come in as soon as they are able and drive everybody out. And Redevelopment gives us the illusion that we can influence how many of us get to stay.
Redevelopment has convinced some people that this is going to help them be upwardly mobile at last; that this is their salvation and that Redevelopment has their best interest at heart.
But these same people, people who sit on the PAC, are blinded to people who are lower than they are in terms of economic opportunity and environmental justice.
I addressed those issues in my response to the EIR.
I was told they were inappropriate because the EIR only has to do with air and parking places and traffic.
I beg to differ with that.
The PAC doesn't seem to want to hear about how shattered our communities are. About how the children's dad's, uncles, and cousins are in prison and its just single moms up there trying to get by.
The meetings I sat through were basically listening to developers plan.
They [the PAC] don't think.
They are not creative on behalf of their own community, for the whole neighborhood, the whole family.
They just listen to other plans that come in and they decide whether they like it or not.
If it looks like it will gain something for them personally, they go for it.

Bernie O'Flynn

I was raised here in the city.
I used to take the bus from the Fillmore in the Western Addition in the 60s.
Although the neighborhood was suffering at the time, it has been completely destroyed by the Redevelopment process.
I ask the commissioners here what has actually changed in the Redevelopment process since that time?
Has there ever been a real consistent definition of what constitutes blight or public necessity?
Eminent Domain is a powerful tool used by the Redevelopment Agency from time to time.
I currently myself am a victim of a flawed process.
The city is trying to take a property of mine for no good reason.
There are no rules of evidence, like a criminal or civil procedure.
You can be accused or something like having a property the city needs. But they have absolutely no requirement to provide evidence that the need is verifiable, or to show there is any substantial benefit to the city.
I would urge that the Redevelopment Agency really take strong steps to reform their process and also to address the epidemic of eminent domain misuse and abuse across the country, wherein governments, municipal and Redevelopment Agencies take private property from one person, take out a small business loan, take a person out of their house and give it to a private developer for private development and private profit.
I would just like to mention that as one person did today, this would not have happened in a richer white neighborhood.
To echo the words of James Baldwin, Urban renewal is often negro removal.

Barbara Cohen

I was part of a firm that worked with the Bayview Hunters Point area to select or elect of have elected a PAC.
I worked with that community to inform them of what the goals and the mission was of the Redevelopment Agency and what the role of the PAC would be.
Tonight I stand before you to tell you that in my personal opinion, the Redevelopment Commission and staff owe the Planning Commission and staff an apology.
We are here tonight speaking as if we are on the final certification of the EIR because of the manner in which the Redevelopment Agency botched what it did in terms of presenting it to the community and the PAC in a fashion where it could be understood, mitigated, modified, and then accepted by a broader section of the community.
I'm appalled that a notice went out just a few days ago of a special meeting of the PAC in Bayview Hunters Point with an agenda item, number 6 I believe, a Workshop on the Environmental Impact Report.
Yes, you had it in December of 2004.
But don't you think it is odd that there was just a meeting scheduled with an agenda item yesterday for a workshop to be held with the PAC, giving the PAC no time to even work with the community?
You as a joint committee have a responsibility to correct what your predecessors have done incorrectly.
Listen to the people who have been here, who have compassionately asked you not to eliminate what has been done, but to give them time to process what has been written so that they can understand it, give their input, and then let it proceed.
The process was not a good one.
The Redevelopment Agency and its staff came to the community late with the information.
I got a copy of it yesterday myself.
So how on earth could a community intelligently come together on something that they received so very late from you?
It is only fair to respect the community who has come to appeal to you a process and ask you to give them time to give the Redevelopment Agency time to correct its efforts and come back to them. Have the workshop. Explain it and expand it so that all of the social issues that should be there are in fact put there.
It has been this long. Why is it that more time to do it right is not appropriate?

Willie Ratcliff

I live in the Bayview Hunters Point
I live at 4917 3^rd Street, and all of a sudden I see that I'm in the line where somebody else will have the sale of my property.
I don't like that.
The Redevelopment Agency was created to reclaim the cities where white flight was.
When a few of us move in, everybody moves out because the government made provision for them to move out.
All we had to do was show up.
But you were set up to come back in here, discriminate against people, don't give them any jobs, put the Police Department out there in the community, and all of the agencies of the city work for justification to push people out because you get big money from the people that run for office.
You don't care what happens to black people.
But some of us do care and we are standing up on this one.
We tried to get a loan program going with you so you wouldn't have that blight out there.
But that didn't fit in with your plans.
Your plan is to run us out of there.
We are not going anywhere.
We're not going to leave 3^rd Street.
We pay more taxes than anybody because we have a more high percentage of property ownership out there.
That is not a poor community.
But you are doing everything you can to make it poor.
You're not educating our people.
You've got it all planned. And now you've got the train running and you're ramming it.
We are going to cut the tracks out from under you before you cross the river.

Christine

I live at 951 Innes.
I just moved to the Bayview a year ago.
I didn't have a chance to comment on the EIR when testimony was taken.
If you have a chance to look further at the EIR, I ask that you look at the traffic effects on Innes Avenue.
Since I'm here, I know you are not considering the Redevelopment Plan right now, but I would ask the commissioners to look carefully at the language relating to eminent domain used against residences.
The way I read the Plan, it says only residentially zoned properties are protected.
To me that means a home in a mixed-use neighborhood would be at risk of eminent domain.
I understand the intent is not to condemn anyone's home.
And if that is the intent, I think that is what the Plan should say.

THIS JOINT HEARING WAS CONVENED TO CONSIDER THE CERTIFICATION OF THE FINAL ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT REPORT FOR THE BAYVIEW HUNTERS POINT REDEVELOPMENT PROJECTS AND ZONING EIR. FOLLOWING PUBLIC TESTIMONY AND PRIOR TO THE PLANNING COMMISSION'S ACTION, THE REDEVELOPMENT AGENCY COMMISSION DELIBERATED, TOOK ACTION TO CERTIFY THE FINAL EIR, AND ADJOURNED. THE PLANNING COMMISSION THEN CONTINUED WITH THEIR DELIBERATION AND ACTION.

B. SPECIAL CALENDAR

1. 1996.546E (N. TURRELL: (415) 558-5994)

BAYVIEW HUNTERS POINT REDEVELOPMENT PROJECTS AND ZONING EIR - Certification of the Final Environmental Impact Report prepared for the San Francisco Redevelopment Agency's (SFRA) proposed Bayview Hunters Point (BVHP) Redevelopment Plan, and possible future amendments to the India Basin Industrial Park (IBIP) and Bayview Industrial Triangle (BIT) Redevelopment Plans, and related rezoning. The Project Area is located in the southeastern quadrant of the City and County of San Francisco in the area generally bounded by Cesar Chavez Street to the north, US 101 to the west, San Mateo County to the south, and the San Francisco Bay to the east. The proposed redevelopment program would institute tax increment financing for the area added to the Hunters Point Redevelopment Project and for the Bayview Industrial Triangle Redevelopment Project, and would rezone land in the Bayview Hunters Point area. The total allocation of net new floor area within the Bayview Hunters Point Redevelopment Area would be approximately 2.2 million square feet by 2020. The potential mall at Candlestick Park would comprise approximately half of this new floor area. Approximately 6,200 net new employees would work in the Bayview Hunters Point Redevelopment Area. In addition, the Redevelopment Area would see an increase of approximately 3,600 new dwelling units by 2020. The northern section of the Project Area is zoned Heavy Industrial (M-1) and Light Industrial (M-2). The Third Street commercial corridor is zoned primarily Neighborhood Commercial (NC-3), with pockets of Heavy and Light Industrial zoning on the northern and southern edges of the corridor. Residentially zoned land is located east and west of Third Street. Residential, Industrial and Neighborhood Commercial zoning classifications are in the Hunters Point Shoreline area. Other pockets of Neighborhood Shopping zoning are along Gilman Avenue and along Hunters Point Boulevard and Innes Avenue. The southern portions of the Project Area generally are zoned Residential and Heavy Commercial, and Public within the Candlestick Point area.

Preliminary Recommendation: Certify the Final Environmental Impact Report.

Note: The public review period for the Draft Environmental Impact Report ended at 5:00 pm, December 10, 2004. The Planning Commission does not conduct public review of Final EIRs. Public comments on the certification may be presented to the Planning Commission during the Public Comment portion of the Commission calendar.

(Continued from Regular Meeting of February 23, 2006)

SPEAKERS: None

ACTION: Certified the final EIR

AYES: Antonini, Bradford-Bell, Hughes, S. Lee and W. Lee

NAYES: Olague

ABSENT: Alexander

MOTION: 17200

ITEMS 2 THROUGH 4 ARE FOR PLANNING COMMISSION ACTION ONLY.

FOLLOWING A FAILED MOTION TO CONTINUE ITEMS 2 THROUGH 4 TO MARCH 9, 2006, THESE ITEMS WERE CALLED AND HEARD TOGETHER.

2. 1996.546EMR (J. Lau: (415) 558-6383)

south bayshore area plan and Bayview Hunters Point Redevelopment Projects and Zoning - Consideration of Adoption of CEQA findings regarding proposed amendments to the South Bayshore Area Plan of the General Plan and the General Plan Referral finding the Bayview Hunters Point Redevelopment Projects and Zoning proposal to be consistent with the General Plan.

Preliminary Recommendation: Approve the draft motion adopting the CEQA Findings.

SPEAKERS: None

ACTION: Adopted CEQA findings

AYES: Antonini, Bradford-Bell, S. Lee and W. Lee

NAYES: Hughes and Olague

ABSENT: Alexander

MOTION: 17201

3. 2006.0074EMR (J. Lau: (415) 558-6383)

South Bayshore Area Plan - The South Bayshore Area Plan covers the area generally bounded by Cesar Chavez Street, Highway 101, the San Francisco/San Mateo County line, Hunters Point Shipyard, and the San Francisco Bay. The Commission will consider a Resolution to Adopt Amendments to the General Plan under the provisions of Section 340 and 306.3 of the Planning Code, and to adopt Planning Code Section 101.1(b) findings. The amendments include text and map revisions to the South Bayshore Area Plan that clarify policy language and respond to changed conditions in the area. The proposed amendments to the General Plan were initiated at a public hearing on February 2, 2006.

Preliminary Recommendation: Approve the Draft Resolution.

SPEAKERS: None

ACTION: Approved

AYES: Antonini, Bradford-Bell, S. Lee and W. Lee

NAYES: Hughes and Olague

ABSENT: Alexander

RESOLUTION: 17202

4. 2006.0074EMR (J. Lau: (415) 558-6383)

Bayview Hunters Point Redevelopment Plan - The Commission will consider a General Plan Referral that includes General Plan conformity findings on the proposed Bayview Hunters Point Redevelopment Plan, finding it to be consistent with the General Plan.

Preliminary Recommendation: Approve the Draft Motion finding the proposed Plan in conformity with the General Plan.

SPEAKERS:

John McCarthy

I live in the East Bay.
I first got involved with base closure, including Hunters Point, over 12 years ago.
I have been preoccupied with Army business a lot ever since.
Relative to the environmental impact questions, I kind of got the impression that the radiological survey information was not considered terribly relevant.
I have huge reservations about that.
I will be looking at all the environmental documentation on potential shipyard impacts in the PAC area. Area B in particular. More specifically, the rectangle on one end of the Medium Density Housing Zoned Area that is surrounded by shipyard parcel A.
There are sites inside that area as well as around it, all of which are noted as radiologically impacted.
So if need be, I will be requesting through Sunshine Ordinance or whatever it takes as a potential public health issue.

ACTION: Approved

AYES: Antonini, Bradford-Bell, S. Lee and W. Lee

NAYES: Olague

ABSENT: Alexander and Hughes

MOTION: 17203

Adjournment: 11:05 p.m.

THESE MINUTES ARE PRPOSED FOR ADOPTION AT THE REGULAR MEETING OF THE PLANNING COMMISSION ON THURSDAY, JUNE 8, 2006

SPEAKERS: None

ACTION: Adopted

AYES: S. Lee, Antonini, Bradford-Bell, Olague, W. Lee

EXCUSED: Alexander

ABSENT: Hughes

Last updated: 11/17/2009 10:00:21 PM