For this month’s shortcuts section, we’ve highlighted select Development and Planning Projects that are underway for 2016.
Showplace Square/Potrero Area Plan
The Showplace Square/Potrero Area Plan was put together in order to ensure that development projects in and near Showplace Square and SoMa don’t change the design PDR-character of the area or negatively affect Potrero Hill. Goals also include strengthening the two neighborhoods as both residential and mixed-use areas, as well as ensuring the provision of a comprehensive package of public benefits as part of rezoning.
The San Francisco General Planning Department’s plan contains a variety of objectives that relate to land use, housing, built form, transportation, street and open space, economic development, community facility and historic preservation.
Showplace Square Open Space Plan
The assessment and planning for the Showplace Square Open Space Plan was completed in 2010, and plans are now being carried out by the Planning Department, as well as a variety of other city agencies. Opportunities that have been identified for potential improvement are as follows:
• Hooper and Wisconsin Streets as potential green, pedestrian-friendly streets.
• Daggett Street for a new park along the right-of-way.
• Jackson Playground as a space that can incorporate community serving activities.
• The “Norcal Triangle” site at 7th and Berry Streets as the target site for a new plaza and other amenities.
• Townsend Circle, for enlargement and overall improvement
• Adding in a part to the “Wolfe’s Café” site along 8th Street’s right-of-way between Irwin and 16th Streets.
Central Waterfront Area Plan
Plans for the Central Waterfront Area are centered around preserving the prolific economic activity of the area and expanding the presences of residential housing and commercial buildings. Currently, the area has many mixed-use buildings, which lends to the neighborhood’s charm. The plan is to increase residential development, integrate the landscape with the surrounding areas, and improve its connections with the water’s edge and the Port land.
There is also ongoing effort to preserve historical and cultural sites and buildings. A survey was conducted in 2000 and 2001 by the Planning Department and the Dogpatch Neighborhood Association to identify such structures as they exist between Mariposa Street south to Islais Creek and from the I-280 east to the Bay.
Crane Cove Park
On seven acres east of Illinois Street, between Mariposa and 19th Street (along the Bay shoreline), is the location of the Pier 70 Crane Cove Park Project. The Project is exciting in a number of ways. First, it is slated to be one of the most celebrated new parks in the City. Its unique location, near an active shipyard repair, is only one of its many stand-out features. The project includes adaptive reuse of historic resources, which includes the preservation of two historic cranes and a historic building slip-way. A variety of interesting landscapes and plaza areas are also on the check list of features for this project. Views from the 1,000-foot stretch of park lying along the shoreline include the dry dock, city skyline, and the beautiful Bay. This project has taken significant planning and will not be completed until late 2107.
