Board of Supervisors pass Bayview Hunters Point redevelopment plan

By Aldrich M. Tan

May 17, 2006

After over ten years and many revisions, the Bayview Hunters Point Redevelopment Plan passed the Board of Supervisors on first reading at Tuesday's meeting.

The plan passed 6 to 3 with Supervisors Ross Mirkarimi, Tom Ammiano and Gerardo Sandoval voting against the plan. Supervisors Jake McGoldrick and Chris Daly were absent during the vote.

"We still have a lot of work to do," Supervisor Sophie Maxwell said, "but we now have a direction thanks to the plan."

Public reactions to the plan remain divided in the Bayview Hunters Point community. Based on findings from the Census 2000, the fogcityjournal.com concludes the area had 5,170 homeowner households and 4,521 renter households in 2000.

However, both proponents and opponents of the plan agree that they need to strengthen their oversight over the San Francisco Redevelopment Agency throughout the plan's implementation.

According to the Census, the median average income for Bayview Hunters Point in the year 2000 was $47,157. However, the median household income for renter households in the Bayview area in 2000 was $27,708.50 while the homeowner median household income was $59,958.50.

Since a large percentage of Bayview Hunters Point is impoverished, community activist Kevyn Lutton said the plan will dislocate a large number of current residents.

"A large percentage of the community is looking at personal gain," Lutton said, "but we can't ignore the rest of our population and let them go homeless."

Lutton requested for additional investigation and disclosure of redevelopment's impact specifically on the black community.

"It will soon be a black-free area," Lutton said.

African Americans are not leaving the community because of redevelopment, said Angelo King, chair of the Bayview Hunters Point Project Area Committee. They are leaving because of the lower quality of life currently available in the Bayview community.

"Black people do want to support each other to get out of poverty," King said.

80 percent of the members of the Bayview Hunters Point Project Area Committee that developed the plan are black, King said. 25 percent of the Project Area Committee's members are renters, including King himself.

"But I am the committee chair so I will make sure that part of the community's voice is heard," King said.

Supervisor Aaron Peskin amended the plan so that the San Francisco Redevelopment Agency audit would take place every three years during the implementation of the plan. The latest amendments to the ordinance said such audits would occur "periodically."

"That could be interpreted as once every ten years," Peskin said.

Cheryl Adams, deputy city attorney, said the Board of Supervisors could still make a decision on the plan Tuesday with the new amendment.

Supervisor Mirkarimi said he voted against the plan because of the San Francisco Redevelopment Agency's previous experiences with the Western Addition.

"I represent area that is emblematic of the double-edged sword that is the San Francisco Redevelopment Agency," Mirkarimi said. "I don't blame the agency for who they are today because there is always new staff; but I worry that we are falling prey to scarcity."

Mirkarimi said the plan should have a similar audit on the San Francisco Redevelopment Agency's involvement in the Western Addition.

"Redevelopment should not happen in one area without questioning it in another area," Mirkarimi said.

Supervisor Ammiano said more months of consensus and deliberation is still needed.

"The amendments help to take the sting out of the bee," Ammiano said, "but the bee is still stinging. We know the developers are hungry and want to get rid of those in their way."

As a state agency, the San Francisco Redevelopment Agency is not under the regulations of the Sunshine Ordinance, Ammiano said The Sunshine Ordinance requires city operations to be open for the people's review since the government's duty is to serve the public and reach its decisions in full view of the public.

"I don't want to make anybody do anything," Ammiano said, "but we need to honor the sunshine laws and make the plan as transparent as possible."

Maxwell said the San Francisco Redevelopment Agency will comply with the Sunshine Ordinance.

"We will make sure of it," Maxwell said. "I do not trust the San Francisco Redevelopment Agency any more than anyone else does."

Supervisor Bevan Dufty said he intends to support the plan. Dufty had strengthened oversight of the plan by inviting the Office of the Controller to work with the Bayview Hunters Point Project Area Committee to find a way to regulate the San Francisco Redevelopment Agency's implementation of the plan.

"We have a community in distress," Dufty said. "I think people in Bayview want to see positive changes happening to their community."

Supervisor Fiona Ma said the plan does not only affect the black community in Bayview Hunters Point.

"The plan focuses not only on the needs of African-American families in the area, but also of Asian American families moving into the community," Ma said. "Today is not the end of the process. It is only the beginning."

King said he agrees with Ma.

"We still have work to do and we are learning along the way," King said.

Even though she is disappointed about the plan's approval, Lutton said she too will help the community provide oversight over the plan's implementation.

"We are a community of extremes," Lutton said. "Of course we're going to keep a vigilant eye on this plan and the San Francisco Redevelopment Agency."

Sponsored by Maxwell, the $188 million plan will develop 1,437 acres of southeast San Francisco, said Tom Evans, lead planner from the San Francisco Redevelopment Agency. The plan includes programs focused on affordable housing, local business development, and community improvement.

The redevelopment plan calls for the establishment of 3,700 new housing units. 925 would be affordable housing units through an inclusionary housing policy. It will help businesses on Third Street improve façade and store fronts and develop a local workforce hiring program, Evans said. A streetscape component of the plan has street repairs for Third Street, Innes Avenue, Carroll Avenue and Bayshore Boulevard.

The San Francisco Redevelopment Agency would finance the plan through a combination of tax increment revenues and the issuing of tax allocation bonds, according to the budget analyst's memo. An estimated $131 million of tax revenues from Bayview Hunters Point area that would have gone to the city's general fund will instead fund the redevelopment plan.

The estimated income of the plan is $293 million in income tax revenues over the 45 years of the redevelopment plan, city controller Ed Harrington said. Approximately $28.6 million would come from the new Candlestick Stadium and shopping mall if they are built.

The Board of Supervisors approved a resolution to develop the South Bayshore plan in 1995. The community developed the Bayview Hunters Point Project Area Committee in 1997 with 21 community representatives to oversee the plan's creation. The San Francisco Redevelopment Agency developed the first version of the redevelopment plan in February 2006.

Maxwell introduced five amendments to the plan at last Tuesday's Board of Supervisors' meeting. The amendments include mandates that the Bayview Hunters Point Project Area Committee, the Planning Department, and the City Services Auditor will provide oversight over the San Francisco Redevelopment Agency throughout the plan's implementation.

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