Project Description

Islais Creek Area Economic and Community Improvement Concept Plan

Summary
The task of the 2008 Piero Patri fellow will be to analyze the Islais Creek study area and develop recommendations for appropriate new sustainable uses and community economic development opportunities. The goal of the plan is to create a vision for integrated public and private uses in one small segment that will inspire the City to plan, fund and design an adoptable, publicly endorsed plan for the entire southeast waterfront, and to begin implementation of that plan. The overriding goal is to bring the social benefits and the prosperity of the northeastern waterfront to the residents, businesses, and recreationists of the southeastern waterfront. The pedestrian/recreation/waterfront connection will be a key driver of this plan.

Project Area Setting
Islais Creek generally defines the boundary and serves as a "Gateway" to both the Bayview and Central Waterfront communities. It is currently surrounded by primarily heavy industrial and active maritime uses that provide economic development opportunities for the community. Generally the area has not had a coordinated citywide interagency planning effort but rather has been studied and analyzed by various agencies and neighborhood groups as a peripheral area or on the margins of several significant planning efforts.

The area of concentration for the general vision plan selected by the Task Force is generally from Cesar Chavez Street on the north, Illinois Street on the east, Evans Street on the south and I-280 on the west. This area is shown within the dotted line on the aerial photo, and includes Islais Creek as the connecting element.

Background
Islais Creek is an artificial channel in an area created by filling in former bay and marshland. An industrial inlet of the bay it is also an outfall of a natural creek that originates on the slopes of Glen Canyon and Twin Peaks. The neighborhoods to the north and south of the creek began with a mix of large and small houses and farm-related industries. Eventually the city's heavy industries located to the area and the residential population changed.

During the second half of the 20th century, the Bayview District was dominated by warehousing, heavy industry and public infrastructure, such as the Port's container facility and the Public Utility Commission's (PUC) wastewater treatment and power plants, which were located directly on the Creek. Despite boasting one of the highest percentages of home ownership in the city it also had the largest percentage of subsidized housing. It also suffers the highest rate of unemployment, lowest household income and either the most or second most serious crimes. The waterfront grew up largely in support of commercial port, military shipyard, power plant, and light industrial uses. For over 50 years, these uses have been declining here as in other old port cities worldwide.

San Francisco has been gradually converting Port lands in the northern part of the city to new uses, but great obstacles remain-outmoded regulations, the cost of under-water structure, and others. The result is that many piers are rotting into the water, many waterfront areas are closed to public use, and poverty and crime continue to harm the Southeastern quadrant of the city.

In the past decade, residents and businesses in the Bayview have worked in concert with public agencies to promote sustainable development and environmental justice. The Port sponsored two habitat restoration areas and encouraged its tenants to adopt green processes. The PUC has authored plans to clean up its wastewater treatment and power plants. City departments have maintained industrial zoning in anticipation of the possibility of cleaner and higher value industries to serve the area and rejuvenate the district. In 2007, San Francisco completed its first new light rail line since before the Great Depression-the T-3rd Line which goes near the Southern waterfront, almost to the County line.

In the last years of his life, Piero N. Patri proposed the concept of a parkway through this corridor, bringing the prosperity of the northern waterfront to these neighborhoods which have been generally impoverished and underserved. At the same time, the Neighborhood Parks Council and SPUR have been seeking to extend the San Francisco Bay Trail south to the county line. Calling it the "Blue-Greenway" we have called on the people of San Francisco to, over 25 years, develop:

… a working, urban waterfront that invites public use, enjoyment and access to the water. Imagine an environmentally sustainable and accessible shoreline, one that is safe and healthy for people as well as wildlife. Imagine a premier public open space on the Bay – a place that provides for public life, recreation and enjoyment, connects San Francisco's eastern neighborhoods to their waterfront, and serves as a catalyst for responsive and responsible development, employment opportunities, and economic vitality.

This is the vision for the Blue Greenway – to create a 13 mile greenway/waterway network along San Francisco's Southern Waterfront, completing San Francisco's portion of the Bay Trail, increasing public enjoyment of this historic, working waterfront, and providing much-needed open space, water access, and a walking/biking route to San Francisco's eastern neighborhoods.

Major planning studies are underway for the individual neighborhoods that comprise this area. It is a part of the city that is very much in flux.

Opportunities and Issues

There are many opportunities and issues for the redevelopment of San Francisco's southeastern waterfront, including:

• public and private land ownership patterns
• need for economic development to benefit underserved communities
• multiple public jurisdictions/lack of coordinating entity
• existing land uses and the potential for changing uses, including industrial, residential, and recreation
• Bay Trail/Blue Greenway continuity
• water access for recreationists
• pedestrian/bicycle/skateboard/railroad/ and motor vehicle accommodation
• urban and streetscape design
• relationship to Third Street Light Rail (T-Line)
• transit accessibility
• connectivity to adjoining neighborhoods
• community wishes and support
• funding of public improvements
• desire for best practices in sustainability
• restoration and continuity of ecological processes

Because of time limitations, the work of the Fellow will focus on only some of these opportunities and issues. Considerable data and past studies are available which the SPUR Southeast Waterfront Task Force will assemble for the Fellow.

Skills

The range of potential skills to be considered for a Fellow include the following:

• research
• writing
• urban design
• site design
• land use economics
• environmental sciences
• sustainable development
• community participation
• verbal communication
• graphic presentation

It is understood that no one Fellow will possess all of these skills, and that the exact definition of the Fellow's work may of necessity be somewhat tailored to the Fellow's skills, as well as the time availability.

Client
SPUR Southeast Waterfront Task Force