Ferry Building piazza proposed in new port plan
ings along the Embarcadero should include leases of as little as 11 years. This would allow developers to invest in improvements but not require a full structural renovation, as is the expectation with the current 66-year leases.
Piers 30-32, the vast but dilapidated 13-acre platform where the Golden State Warriors first sought to build their arena, should be offered to private developers. The goal is to attract enough investment to bring the space back to life while also maintaining it as a deepwater berth.
The port will continue to seek a ship repair firm to reopen the facilities at Pier 70, which provided high-paying jobs for as many as 800 workers at a time until it closed abruptly in 2017. But the plan also concedes that the port may “broaden its marketing efforts to consider other maritime uses,” given the shipping industry’s trend toward ever-larger dry docks.
“We want to be realistic about what’s out there in the market,” Forbes said, though she stressed that this portion of the waterfront would remain an industrial zone.
The plan accentuates the positive, such as the boast in the introduction that “more than ever, San Francisco is united with its waterfront.” But it is rooted in debates that have welled up since the state transferred the port to the city in 1968.
The 1997 plan was required by a 1990 voter initiative that also banned hotels from being built on piers. The update, similarly, follows neighborhood resistance to a condominium complex on the inland side of the Embarcadero that was approved by the Port Commission and the Board of Supervisors, but defeated in 2013 at the ballot box.
There’s a hint of the past strife in that one of the nine official goals of the new plan is “Partnering for Success.” That goal includes an acknowledgment that “it is essential that all members of the community are regularly represented at the planning table and have a voice.”
The bulky plan follows three years of meetings with a 34member working group that included several longtime port critics. Last year, the group endorsed 161 recommendations that are reflected in the plan.
To Forbes, the message heard by port staff is that people want to see activities in which they can take part.
“The attitude is ‘give us more,’ ” Forbes suggested. “Give us more amenities, more destinations like the Ferry Building and the Exploratorium.”
That said, the costs involved in adding shoreline parks or restoring historic piers is daunting.
The Exploratorium, for instance, moved to Pier 15 in 2013. It now attracts more than 800,000 visitors annually — but the cost of the move was $200 million.
That’s a particularly expensive project, given the needs of a science museum. But any large restoration effort triggers seismic upgrades, as well as structural standards far more exacting than when the piers were constructed in the early 20th century.
This is one reason for allowing shorter-term leases at piers now used for little except parking or storage. It also acknowledges the reality that the port and city need to rebuild much of the seawall along the Embarcadero in the coming decades. That century-old structure is near the end of its life, and portions might need to be raised because of projections that the bay’s average tidal levels could climb several feet by 2100.
“Finding a way to allow interim uses is a big part of the plan,” Forbes said. “We may not be able to fully rehabilitate every historic piece, but this is a way to bring in activities,” such as cafes or commercial spaces along the Embarcadero.
The updated plan also seeks, discreetly, to tweak aspects of the original plan that, though implemented, haven’t lived up to expectations.
One goal in 1997 was to add green spaces along the bay — the result of which can be seen at the end of Bryant Street in South Beach or alongside the cruise terminal at Pier 27 that opened in 2014.
But “many of the port waterfront parks are underused,” according to the new plan. Meanwhile, “there is growing public desire for a broader offering of recreational uses, events, and activities in port parks.”
This can be as simple as scheduling more events within existing spaces, suggested one planner at the port.
“Major parks and open spaces every five to 10 minutes (walk) have been created,” said Kari Kilstrom, project manager for the updated plan. “It becomes a matter of enhancing what’s there.”
The port will seek public comments on the new plan this summer, followed by an environmental impact study. Also, the state’s Bay Conservation and Development Commission must review the proposed changes.
The target date to put a new plan in place is early in 2021.