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Board delays Sharp Park garter snake habitat grant vote amid deed‑restriction and map questions
Summary
Supervisors continued a retroactive acceptance of a roughly $200,500 California Habitat Conservation Fund grant for Sharp Park, asking Recreation & Park Department staff to narrow the deed restriction to the actual restoration footprint and provide a proper legal description; the item was continued two weeks to July 27.
The San Francisco Board of Supervisors on July 13 voted to continue consideration of a retroactive state grant to restore habitat for the endangered San Francisco garter snake at Sharp Park to July 27 after supervisors raised questions about the deed restriction and the map submitted with the grant.
Supervisor Aaron Peskin, who led the floor conversation on the item, said the resolution on its face said the grant covered 1 acre but the exhibit map appears to encompass a much larger area — potentially hundreds of acres within the Sharp Park assessor’s parcel — and that the exhibit supplied was a picture rather than a formal legal description. Peskin proposed an amendment making clear that the deed restriction would not prevent the City from conveying the property to another steward if the successor assumed grant obligations and the state approved the transfer.
Toni Moran, a Recreation and Park Department grant writer, told the board that the California Department of Parks and Recreation had accepted a topographic map as an acceptable legal description for the Habitat Conservation Fund program. Moran said she would work with the state to shrink the area described for the deed restriction so it matches the actual project footprint and file a deed restriction that reflects the area being restored.
“Part of what I can do is work with the state to reduce the area to more accurately reflect the project area as you requested,” Moran said. She also said the grant was awarded in 2019 and that the department believed the grant would be non‑retroactive until funds were spent.
Supervisor Peskin asked for a two‑week continuance to allow Rec & Park to provide a legal description and clarified project footprint; Supervisor Connie Chan seconded the motion. The Board took the continuance without objection and the clerk announced item 34 would be continued to July 27. Supervisors noted the grant funds are intended to support a very small restoration area and that a corrected exhibit and legal description should accompany the deed restriction before the Board takes final action.
The grant would authorize the Recreation & Park Department to maintain habitat for the San Francisco garter snake through the contract performance period (through 2039) and would authorize filing a deed restriction reflecting those obligations.
The board’s discussion also touched on a longer running conversation about the eventual stewardship of Sharp Park, which the city accepted as a bequest decades ago and which abuts property owned by the Golden Gate National Recreation Area and San Mateo County. Peskin’s whereas clause amendment adds language preserving the City’s ability to transfer the land provided the successor assumes the grant’s obligations and the state approves the transfer.
