Balboa Park Station Area Plan, via SF Planning
Recently the Balboa Park Station Area Plan has come back into the news as the plan slowly comes to fruition. As with all things political, the frustrating pace is necessary to make sure that it’s done correctly. Especially in this case, when so much of the work is meant to correct for the horrendous design visited upon this area in the past 50 years.
This formerly residential neighborhood is blessed with some of the best transit connectivity in San Francisco. It’s BART’s busiest station outside of Downtown SF, and it is a transfer station for many Muni lightrail and bus lines. It also was cut in half by I-280, which made a gouge through the namesake park and the affordable housing nearby. With the main campus of City College in it’s midst, this neighborhood, for good or ill, is based on transit.
The new plan makes several admirably ambitious steps forward. I’ll try to summarize as best as I can (organized roughly West to East), but there’s no substitute for reading it yourself.
- The newsmaker recently has been the relocation of the “Phelan Bus Loop”. This would take what is effectively a parking lot and convert it to multi-family affordable housing, combined with the nearby vacant Kragen store. Then a new Bus Loop would be constructed around the existing Firehouse, complete with bathrooms and a rest area for the drivers. This new configuration would provide great connectivity to the CCSF campus, and create a more interesting street face along Ocean Ave, while providing much needed housing.
- Adjacent to the Bus Loop sits two enormous vacant properties owned by the City of San Francisco. Two unbuilt reservoirs hold only cars and dirt. The Plan would use the eastern half of each parcel to construct additional housing, and create open space on the western half. This would effectively reserve area if the reservoirs are needed in the future, while allowing for construction of homes in a very desirable location. The Campus could have a much better entrance, and Phelan has much more capacity than is used right now.
- Along with rebuilding Phelan, Ocean and Geneva are in dire need of a face lift. The basic idea is to construct them in terms with SF’s Better Streets Plan, doing their best to create a more pedestrian and family friendly streetscape. There is also a plan to encourage more mixed use zoning to get more people on the street. This would also help re-link the two sides of the freeway.
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Section through SPUI and Freeway Deck, via SF Planning
The gem of the plan is the SPUI and freeway deck above 280. Single Point Urban Interchanges funnel traffic entering and exiting the highway through one chokepoint, helping to control car’s speed, while also creating an easier to navigate crosswalk. The interstate area between Ocean and Geneva would have a deck above it, creating a pedestrian and transit plaza. MUNI’s existing turnarounds would be transferred to the deck, putting it closer to both sides of the neighborhood, and also the CCSF campus. Of course BART would get a facelift also, trying to lighten up the trench-like station. The deck might also host additional housing and stores, as part of the overall plan to announce the Station as a destination rather than a view from a culvert.
- Lastly, San Jose would also receive the same treatment as Ocean and Geneva. There would be an effort to reclaim some land from MUNI to create more housing and shops, again all trying to create walkable neighborhoods.
Naturally this is a plan that will take decades to enact. And many millions of dollars. But this is an area that is absolutely ripe for more development. Where else can you find schools and houses so close to BART for such affordable prices? As I’ve written before, why not take advantage of what we have? The question is, how can we best work to enact the needed changes? We needed this project 25 years ago.
Proposed Freeway Deck and SPUI, via SF Planning
Comments
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Christopher on 11.20.2009
Great overview, I would think this is just the kind of project that developers would be salivating over, and could bring a lot of additional revenue into the City and County that are much needed. Long-term landleases on city-owned property or outright sales, a firm area plan that is used to guide development and zoning and tax-increment financing to pay for the station and decking. Other cities are doing these types of things in similar combinations, what’s SF’s problem. Does it take while? If done right and with a seriously plan this could all be done in a decade.
Pedestrianist on 11.20.2009
The devil is in the details for the revamped BP Station. There are a lot of connections that need to be ironed out, the M coming up from the South, the K from the West and the J from the North. All of those lines need access to the rail yard as well as the station itself, without obstructing rider circulation through the station.
I’d add to that mix an extension of the T-Third up Geneva from the East, connecting the T to BP Station and the associated rail yard.
San Francisco News: “The Scoop” » Blog Archive » Big Plans: Balboa Park Area Begins Growth Spurt: Plazas, Freeway Deck Coming on 11.30.2009
[...] other urban transformation news, the Balboa Park Station Area Plan that got passed back in April is just about getting its start. [...]
Ted King on 12.15.2009
The “Pedestrianist” leaves out a killer barrier to the T-Third – a DOUBLE border. For the loop to be closed via the Bayshore and Geneva the tracks would have to run through both San Mateo County and the city of Daly City. That would trigger a jurisdictional furball that would make a transit planner blanch.
There are three possible extensions for the southern end of the T-Third :
1) LIKELY – Bend east to Caltrain’s Tunnel Ave Stn.;
2) Maybe – Connect to Balboa Park BART Stn. via Bayshore + Geneva. The western end might be routed via Alemany – Ocean so as to avoid the dip and the traffic as well as tie into the Mission + Ocean node;
3) GREAT DREAM – After #1 continue south into Brisbane, through the hill into South S.F., and continue on to South S.F. BART Stn. This would link the isolated pocket of Brisbane to the county government center and the Kaiser Permanente Hospital (back door bridge needed)..
NB – The T-Third has a yard of its own just off Third St. north of Cesar Chavez (aka Army St.).
NB2 – The two reservoirs were paved (at least as far back as 1975 IIRC) and could have held water very easily. The pipes, pumps, and covers were not installed. The northern one has been reconfigured with a different ramp and lights in the last few years. The southern one has some sort of condo / apartment building going up on it right now.
Scott on 03.08.2010
This is a BART station I’ve only used once but that once was confusing and scummy. A friend dropped me off on the corner of San Jose and Ocean “next to the BART station” and I couldn’t even find the place until I heard a BART train rumble by and went towards the sound.
I finally ended up going down the scummy MUNI alley with college students practically shoving me onto the train tracks on the 2-foot wide sidewalk. WTF is up with this station? This place is as ugly, hidden and hellish as they come.. It needs any redesign it can get.
Bruce on 05.19.2010
Great overview, I would think this is just the kind of project that developers would be salivating over, and could bring a lot of additional revenue into the City and County that are much needed. Long-term landleases on city-owned property or outright sales, a firm area plan that is used to guide development and zoning and tax-increment financing to pay for the station and decking. Other cities are doing these types of things in similar combinations, what’s SF’s problem. Does it take while? If done right and with a seriously plan this could all be done in a decade.
Streetsblog San Francisco » Phelan Bus Loop Project, First in Balboa Area Plan, Gets Federal Funding on 07.08.2010
[...] Balboa plan is an ambitious blueprint for the area. Planners have envisioned a full deck over I-280 that would reconnect neighborhoods while dramatically improving pedestrian, [...]