8 Washington Parks, Public Access and Housing Initiative The 8 Washington Parks, Public Access and Housing Initiative was certified on July 12, 2013 by the City and County of San Francisco Department of Elections for the November 5, 2013 ballot. SECTION 1. Title. This measure shall be known and may be cited as the “8 Washington Parks, Public Access and Housing Initiative” (referred to hereinafter as the “Initiative”). top SECTION 2. Findings and Purposes. A. The People of the City and County of San Francisco declare their findings and purposes in enacting this Initiative to be as follows: This Initiative will create new housing, a waterfront public park, open space, sidewalk cafes, and pedestrian and bicycle access to The Embarcadero for the 8 Washington site, located on The Embarcadero and bounded by Washington Street and Drumm Street. Currently, the 3.2-acre site contains an asphalt parking lot and a private club surrounded by a 1,735-foot long fence (longer than five football fields) that blocks public views and prevents pedestrian and bicycle access to the waterfront by cutting off Pacific Avenue and Jackson Street from The Embarcadero. The drawing below shows the site as it exists today: Current site at 8 Washington Current site: Members-only club and asphalt parking lot surrounded by fence that blocks public access to the waterfront. The plan proposed in this Initiative will transform the site by tearing down the fence and removing the asphalt parking lot, creating new public parks on The Embarcadero, building open-air cafes with outdoor seating, and providing housing. Tearing down the existing 1,735-foot fence and replacing the surface parking with an underground garage furthers the goals of the Port of San Francisco’s Waterfront Land Use Plan to reunite the city with its waterfront, restore public views and public access to the waterfront by opening Pacific Avenue and Jackson Street to the public and reconnecting them to The Embarcadero. The plan will revitalize and transform the site through new public access, parks and open space, and by creating a vibrant waterfront community that includes housing, public recreation, retail, sidewalk cafés, new bicycle paths and underground parking serving the Ferry Building Waterfront Area. More than half of the site will be dedicated to recreation and public open space. The drawing below shows the site as it will be transformed if this Initiative is approved: Open Up The Waterfront proposed plan Proposed Plan: Public parks, open-air cafes, residential housing, public access to the waterfront. The current site includes an asphalt parking lot that was formerly a gas station with underground storage tanks and will undergo a thorough environmental clean-up and protect the waterfront from pollutants. This clean-up will be conducted in accordance with the Environmental Impact Report (EIR) that was certified by the City and County of San Francisco. All buildings constructed on the site will be environmentally sustainable and LEED-certified, including features such as green roofs, a vertical garden, solar hot water heating system, locally sourced materials, state of the art storm water management systems, recycled water system, bicycle amenities and is located within one of the most densely served transit corridors in the City. The plan will immediately create 250 new construction jobs, 140 permanent jobs and generate more than $100 million for our local economy. The plan will create much-needed affordable housing in San Francisco. The plan for the site was created through seven years of public input and careful review at neighborhood and waterfront advisory group meetings, commission hearings, city planning studies and environmental studies. The plan’s EIR was completed and certified, and the plan complies with all mitigation measures adopted by the Planning Commission, the Port Commission and the Board of Supervisors. The plan was studied and approved by the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, the San Francisco Planning Commission, the Port Commission and the California State Lands Commission. The plan is consistent with the San Francisco Planning Department’s Northeast Embarcadero Study and its urban design guidelines, which have been commended by the Bay Conservation and Development Commission staff for addressing the need to reconnect The Embarcadero with the city as well as the Bay. To transform the site as proposed in the plan, this Initiative creates a special use district for the 3.2-acre site that would require the plan to meet mandatory requirements including creation of parks and open space, housing, a new aquatics and fitness center with outdoor swimming pools, ground floor retail and sidewalk cafés, contributions to the City’s affordable housing fund, pedestrian access connecting the City to its waterfront, pedestrian and bicycle safety measures, underground parking and car share spaces serving the Ferry Building area, limitations on building heights, generation of additional Port revenues, compliance with environmental mitigation measures and compliance with specific conditions of approval. This Initiative is consistent with the objectives and policies of the General Plan, and would affirmatively promote the objectives and policies of the City’s General Plan. It would amend the General Plan to change the height and bulk district classification of two areas of the site, and amend the Zoning Map to be consistent with the General Plan amendment and to add a new 8 Washington Parks, Public Access and Housing Special Use District. This Initiative applies specifically and uniquely to the 3.2-acre site at 8 Washington, and would set no precedent for any future development in San Francisco. top SECTION 3. Creation of Parks, Public Access and Housing District The San Francisco Planning Code is hereby amended to add a new subsection 249.[71], to create the 8 Washington Parks, Public Access and Housing District, as follows: Creation and Purpose. There is hereby created a special use district known as the 8 Washington Parks, Public Access and Housing District (the “District”), as designated on Sectional Map SU01 of the Zoning Maps of the City and County of San Francisco, consisting of Assessor’s Block 168/Lot 58, Block 171/Lot 69 and Block 201/Lot 12; and Seawall Lot 351, which includes Block 201/Lot 13 (collectively, the “Site”). The purpose of this District is to facilitate the development of the Site in a manner consistent with the purposes and intent of the 8 Washington Parks, Public Access and Housing Initiative, approved by the voters, and the requirements of this District. Controls The provisions of the RC-4 use district established by Section 201 of this Code shall govern in the District, except that a project that contains all of the following mandatory requirements set forth in (b)(1) through (14) of this Section 249.[71] (the “Plan”) shall be a permitted use within the District notwithstanding any other provision of this Code, and any such Plan shall not require conditional use authorization, variance, exception or any other approval or review under this Planning Code. Housing and Affordable Housing The Plan contains residential housing in accordance with the Conditions of Approval attached hereto as Exhibit A which are incorporated herein by this reference (the “Conditions of Approval”), and creates affordable housing by paying into the City’s affordable housing fund an amount calculated on twenty percent of all residential units included in the Plan in accordance with the requirements of Section 415.1 et seq. of the Planning Code, plus a fee with respect to an additional five percent of all residential units included in the Plan pursuant to an agreement with the San Francisco Port Commission. Parks and Open Space The Plan contains publically dedicated parks, open space and public sidewalks and walkways equal to at least twenty percent of the overall land area of the Site. Recreation The Plan includes a fitness and aquatics center with ground floor swimming pool facilities, a fitness center of no more than two stories, and an open membership. Retail/Restaurant Space Ground floor retail and sidewalk cafés are located along the major street frontages on The Embarcadero and Washington and Drumm Streets. Public Walkways & Pedestrian Access New and expanded pedestrian access to the waterfront is created by opening up Jackson Street and Pacific Avenue from Drumm Street through to The Embarcadero, and by widening and improving the eastern edge of the existing Drumm Street walk from Washington Street to a new park on the northern portion of the Site. Enhanced Pedestrian and Bicycle Safety All existing curb cuts along the three blocks on the west side of The Embarcadero are removed and the Washington Street frontage of the Site includes only a single curb cut to create a vibrant, active streetscape and increase pedestrian and bicycle safety. Parking & Dedicated Car Share Spaces Surface parking is prohibited within the Site, which includes the removal of any existing surface parking. Underground parking shall contain no more than 200 public parking spaces, and no more than 0.95 parking spaces per residential unit. Any garage shall also meet or exceed Planning Code Section 166 requirements for on-site car share spaces. Bicycle Improvements The Plan provides for expanded and enhanced bicycle access throughout the Site and includes no fewer than 81 public bicycle parking spaces and one bicycle parking space for each residential unit implemented pursuant to Planning Code Sections 155.2 and 155.4, surface-level bicycle parking, improved bicycle lanes on The Embarcadero, bicycle access on Jackson Street, and two new east-west bicycle lanes on the north and south sides of Washington Street between the Embarcadero and Drumm Street. Height and Bulk No buildings contained within the Plan shall exceed the applicable height limits for the District as set forth on Sectional Map HT01 of the Zoning Maps of the City and County of San Francisco, as amended by the 8 Washington Parks, Public Access and Housing Initiative approved by the voters, subject to the following further limitations: the heights along The Embarcadero shall be limited to five to six stories for the residential building located south of Jackson Street, two stories for the fitness club and café building located north of Jackson Street, with the remainder of the Site along the Embarcadero designated as publically dedicated open space. The bulk of the buildings within this District may exceed the E bulk designation so long as the bulk of the buildings shall not exceed bulk shown on the building plans attached hereto as Exhibit A-2. Environmental Protection, Mitigation Monitoring and Reporting Program. The Plan shall incorporate an agreement with the Planning Department of the City and County of San Francisco to comply with the Mitigation Monitoring and Reporting Plan (“MMRP”) adopted by the San Francisco Planning Commission on March 22, 2012 (Case No. 2007.0030E) attached hereto as Exhibit A-1 and incorporated by reference herein, which will allow the Zoning Administrator to approve a change to a mitigation measure so long as the Zoning Administrator finds, based on substantial evidence, that the change (1) is minor, (2) would substantially lessen or avoid the significant impact addressed by that measure, or (3) is no less protective of the environment than that measure. Building Design. The design of buildings within the Plan shall be in substantial conformance with the drawings attached hereto as Exhibit A-2, and incorporated by reference herein. Compliance with Conditions of Approval. The Plan shall incorporate an agreement with the Planning Department of the City and County of San Francisco requiring compliance with the Conditions of Approval, and prior to issuance of any building permit for the Site, a notice of the agreement in such form as is approved by the Zoning Administrator shall have been recorded in the Official Records of the Recorder of the City and County of San Francisco. Sewer Infrastructure Protection. The Plan shall incorporate an agreement with the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission to protect existing and future sewer infrastructure on, under and adjacent to the Site. Generation of Additional Port Revenue. The Plan shall incorporate an agreement with the San Francisco Port Commission providing that any sale of a residential or commercial unit on the Site excluding the fitness/aquatics center parcel shall pay to the Port an amount equal to one percent of sales proceeds received after, but not including, the first sale pursuant to a separate agreement with the San Francisco Port Commission. top SECTION 4. Amendments to General Plan and Planning Code General Plan Amendment. The San Francisco General Plan is hereby amended consistent with the map attached hereto as Exhibit B to read as follows: Map 2 - Height and Bulk Plan of the Northeastern Waterfront Area Plan of the General Plan of the City and County of San Francisco is hereby amended to change the height and bulk district classification of two areas of the western portion (along the Drumm Street frontage) of the property located at Block 0201, Lot 012 that is currently set at 84-E to 92-E in one area measuring 88 feet by 86 feet, and to 136-E in another irregular, roughly rectangular area measuring 15,370 square feet.
Posted on: Wed, 02 Oct 2013 08:07:42 +0000
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