Arc Ecology is joining with a number of organizations in co-sponsoring a workshop to review the currently proposed land-use concept for Treasure and Yerba Buena Islands and to identify ways that this preliminary plan can be changed to better incorporate principles of compact development and create a community that is truly pedestrian, bicycle and transit friendly.

The workshop is also co-sponsored by:

• Bluewater Network
• San Francisco Bicycle Coalition
• San Francisco League of Conservation Voters
• San Francisco Tomorrow
• Sierra Club
• Transportation for a Livable City
• Treasure Island Wetlands Project
• Walk San Francisco

The former Naval Station Treasure Island (which includes TI and most of YBI) has the potential to become a model of sustainable redevelopment. While there are many aspects of sustainability that may be explored at future workshops, this one will focus on the interrelationship between transportation and land use planning and on ways to incorporate the principles of compact development into the agreements currently being negotiated between the proposing development team (Treasure Island Community Development, LLC, or TICD) and the government oversight agency (Treasure Island Development Authority, or TIDA).

The 2,800 units of housing planned for the two islands could be compactly situated around attractive, convenient, and dependable ferry and bus links to the San Francisco waterfront. The amount of residential parking could be restricted, and its costs could be separated from housing costs. Visitors drawn to the island by the extensive Bayshore park, including wildlife habitat created by a storm water treatment wetland, could also enjoy restaurants and hotels easily accessed by public transit.

But unless the developer's recent land-use concepts are substantially revised, Treasure Island will instead be one more Bay Area development that depends on the automobile, and, along with all the usual negative environmental impacts of the private car, will exacerbate congestion on the Bay Bridge.

The plans currently proposed by TICD provide for three to four separate residential neighborhoods spread across the island, isolated from the retail and commercial uses, which would be concentrated at the southern end of the island. The planned location for the TI ferry terminal is not the western shore that faces the San Francisco Ferry Building, but is instead at the southeastern corner of the island, far away from most of the housing. (The only ferry service planned for TI for the next two decades is a route to the San Francisco waterfront.)

Please join with other transportation experts, urban designers, compact-growth advocates, and land-use planners to review current plans for Treasure Island and to explore changes that could bring sustainable, transit-oriented redevelopment.

For more information:
Eve Bach at Arc Ecology at (415) 495-1786; [email protected]

Figures below are from the Treasure Island Community Development (TICD) planning documents and are provided here for informational purposes only. For a full explanation, please see the TICD planning documents, available online at http://www.sfgov.org/site/treasureisland_page.asp?id=21914.