Port, Developer Present Pier 29 Proposal at June 8th Board Meeting

At the June 8th Board meeting, BCNA hosted representatives from the Port of San Francisco, Jamestown Development, LLC, and SFMade for a discussion about the proposal for a retail development in Pier 29.  Jon Golinger from Telegraph Hill Dwellers and other local community members also attended.  Following the meeting, BCNA and the Port exchanged the following correspondence:

June 13, 2016

Ms. Elaine Forbes
Interim Executive Director
Port of San Francisco
Pier 1, the Embarcadero
San Francisco, CA 94111

Dear Ms. Forbes:

Thank you for speaking to our board and interested members on June 8, 2016 about the proposal for the development of the bulkhead building at Pier 29. We appreciate your interest in meeting with us to discuss concerns and we were also pleased to hear from representatives of Jamestown Development LLC and SF Made.

It was very helpful to have a discussion about the plans for the building and to gain more clarification of the process, the nature of the retail proposal, consideration of the outside promotional structure to attract visitors, and next steps.

Specifically, we support many aspects of the proposal as presented, which focuses on retailing unique San Francisco merchandise in the 20,000 square foot bulkhead building, and that any further development proposals for the rest of the pier will be subject to a transparent process that will include NEWAG and community input. We were also heartened to hear that the red pylon promotional structure that had been suggested in the proposal is not definitive and will be reconsidered in light of its incongruity with the historic character of the building.

We would also like to highlight one process concern — the selection committee bypassed NEWAG while seeking rapid approval of Jamestown’s proposal.  Given NEWAG’s advisory role and the length — 15 years — of the proposal, we believe some briefing for NEWAG prior to Commission approval was appropriate.  Therefore, we recommend for projects exceeding a certain scope that selection committees brief NEWAG on their decision prior to obtaining Commission approval.  Such a step will facilitate better communication and partnership with the neighborhood.

We remain interested in the pursuit of recreational opportunities and activities for the remainder of the pier and look forward to ongoing dialogue with the Port about these ideas via NEWAG or independently through meetings such as the one we had last week.    Moreover we support continued discussion of the best use of the remaining space as part of a more comprehensive update to the 1990 Waterfront Land Use Plan and understand there is currently a mechanism in place reviewing the plan for updates going forward. We are interested in participating in the Subarea Planning for the Northeast Waterfront planned for later this year.

We are enthusiastic about the possibilities for Pier 29 and hearing about the thoughtful proposal for the bulkhead building. We look forward to seeing its progress.

Please do not hesitate to contact any of our board members if we can be helpful in providing constructive dialogue with the community in support of the proposal as presented to us on June 8, 2016.

Sincerely,

William Hannan
Acting President
Barbary Coast Neighborhood Association
whann@att.net

cc: Aaron Peskin
Members San Francisco Port Commission (via Amy Quesada)
Members Port of San Francisco Northeast Waterfront Advisory Group
Stan Hayes, President Telegraph Hill Dwellers

On Tuesday, June 14, 2016 7:52 AM, “Forbes, Elaine (PRT)” <elaine.forbes@sfport.com> wrote:

Good morning, Bill.