Seismic-Issues

Excerpt:

To cheers and applause from the audience, the Board of Supervisors unanimously approved a massive new neighborhood proposed for Treasure Island.

In the 11-0 vote the board rejected claims by groups such as the Sierra Club that the project would harm the environment and exacerbate traffic problems.

Instead, members of the board said the $1.5 billion project would breathe new life into the old Navy base in the middle of San Francisco Bay.

Excerpt:

San Francisco’s Planning Commission on Thursday advanced the massive redevelopment of Treasure Island by a 4-3 vote, approving the $1.5 billion project’s environmental impact report.

Excerpt:

Treasure Island was built in the 1930s atop a broad underwater shoal by dumping tons and tons more sand onto the area - sand that was dredged from other parts of the bay and carried to the rapidly growing island by barge, or pumped there through hydraulic pipelines.

Now, the developers seeking to build a high-rise neighborhood in a location susceptible to earthquakes, tsunamis and sea-level rise have drawn up an engineering plan that in essence creates a new island atop the sandy fill.

Excerpt:

No spot in the Bay Area has the obvious development potential of Treasure Island. None has such obvious pitfalls.

The 403-acre oval in the middle of the bay boasts a uniquely captivating setting, but its soil could turn to jelly in a major earthquake. Residents would live just 1.5 miles from downtown San Francisco, but the journey by car involves the perennially sluggish Bay Bridge.

Table of Contents

1. General
2. Summary Statement
3. Developer / Land Owner Attributes
4. Entitlement
5. Physical Site Characteristics
6. Location Characteristics
7. Local Attitude Toward a Project of This Type and Scale
Appendix
List of Exhibits

Excerpt:

But there is plenty of work, financial and otherwise, that still needs to be done before construction starts.

First, building on an island is complicated. Treasure Island is a flat, low-lying man-made extension of Yerba Buena Island that was built on fill for the 1939-40 Golden Gate International Exposition.

Excerpt:

Plans are afoot to turn San Francisco’s 400-acre Treasure Island into an environmentally sustainable neighbourhood for up to 24,000 residents

It is either a vision for a new residential utopia in one of the most beautiful spots in the world or the most ill-conceived plan for a new city for a long time. Opinion is divided on a proposal to transform Treasure Island, a 400-acre man-made outcrop with picture-postcard views of San Francisco, into an environmentally sustainable neighbourhood for up to 24,000 residents.

Excerpt:

"It's about as risky a project as there is," said Jack Sylvan, San Francisco's director of the Treasure Island redevelopment project. "It's massively front-loaded."

Excerpt:

Lisa Kirk is standing on the superlevee of raised earth known as Delta Coves, gazing at the surreal project she fought for five years. The land is empty but for the dozens of aluminum docks that lead from vacant lots down to the water’s edge. Tiny manmade waterways await future residents. But before they come, the bankrupt project (once owned by Lehman Brothers) will have to find a new buyer.

[Response to SunCal's letter of October 19, 2009]

Table of Contents

1. Scope of Election Report
2. Regulatory Framework
3. Subsequent DDADisposition and Development Agreement Approval
4. Failure of Initiative and Effect on Maintenance of Base
5. Impact Fee Exactions and Exemptions
6. Public Benefits and Financing
7. $200 Million Public Benefit Cap
8. Fiscal Neutrality
9. Transfer of Rights