April 2009Progress Made Towards San Francisco General Hospital RebuildBy Herman WongGroundbreaking for San Francisco General Hospital’s (SFGH) new acute care center, earthquake retrofits, and energy back-up system could begin as soon as this May. Preparatory measures for the hospital’s rebuild are already well underway. The current plans exclude a previously proposed helipad, as well as the removal of trees along the hospital’s Potrero Street entrance. The hospital’s redevelopment project will be paid for by a bond measure passed last November. According to SFGH spokesperson Rachel Kagan, workers are currently mapping the hospital’s existing network of underground utilities to make sure that they match up with site plans. “In order to start the new building we will have to move the routing of the utilities that serve the current building,” Kagan said. Construction will start with the digging of the foundation for the acute care center’s brick and glass tower. The new acute care center is scheduled for completion in 2014. Installation of proposed new emergency electricity generators must be approved by several regulatory agencies, including the Bay Area Air Quality District, with an expected 2011 completion date. The hospital’s 22nd and 23rd street entrances may be modified to allow for car accessible patient drop-off areas, though this change has yet to be scheduled. A couple of previously announced plans that received community opposition are on hold. A truck access area along Potrero Avenue won’t require cutting down any sidewalk trees, at least for now. “Can I say that’s not going to happen in six years? No. But there’s nothing planned right now,” Kagan said. Plans to build a 3,000 square foot helipad platform on the roof of the hospital’s main building are also on hold. “There is no activity related to the helipad at all, in terms of seeking funding or planning,” Kagan said. The bond measure supporting the rebuild doesn’t include funding for the helipad, which had spawned significant opposition from Mission and Potrero Hill neighborhood groups. According to City Planner Devyani Jain, the Planning Department hasn’t received any requests that a helipad be built at the hospital since previous plans were scuttled. Last fall San Francisco voters passed Proposition A, which authorized the sale of $887.4 million in bonds to pay for the hospital construction. Sales of the first bond series offering, set at $131.6 million, began on March 4th, said Nadia Sesay, director of the City’s Office of Public Finance. The sale is the first of possibly five series. Sesay didn’t expect the bond sale to have a significant effect on the City’s property tax rate. “The net impact will be minimal to the homeowner,” she said. |
This Month's StoriesResidential Areas Exempt from Parking Meter Plan, According to MTA Official City Hopes America’s Cup Runneth Over Starr King Elementary Leads SF Schools in Improved Test Scores Southside a Center for Metal Harvesting History Lives on Wisconsin Street San Francisco Breweries Chug Water Dogpatch Hosts Design Residency Project Monte Cristo Club Serves-Up Salty Fish UCSF - Mission Bay’s Scientist Dave Morgan Studies Segregation Foreclosure Crises Lingers in Bayview Black Population Continues to Dwindle Bayview Foreclosure Fighters Take a Stand Radio Africa & Kitchen Puts Down Roots in Bayview Downtown High School Teaches Environmental Lessons San Francisco Firefighters Distribute Toys, Just Not Through Chimneys Hill Resident Publishes Book About Apple’s Post-Jobs Future Henry Joseph Judnick 1927 ~ 2011 On-going FeaturesCrime & Safety Report: Potrero Hill Resident Works Cases at District Attorney’s Office
 |