San Francisco delays Transbay Transit Center Mello‑Roos vote after closed‑session bargaining; city seeks waivers from developers

San Francisco supervisors opened a public hearing Tuesday on a proposed Community Facilities District (CFD) to raise money for the Transbay Transit Center and the downtown rail extension, but continued the measure for two weeks after closed‑session discussions about potential litigation and a last‑minute funding adjustment.

Planning Department staff framed the hearing as the second legislative step toward forming the district. “This is the second legislative action, relating to the formation of the Transbay, the Transit Center CFD or Mello Roos District,” Adam Barrett, a Planning Department presenter, told the board during the public hearing.

The CFD would impose an annual special tax on new development in the Transit Center district; revenue projections discussed at the hearing aimed to generate roughly $800 million in net proceeds to help pay for the Transbay Transit Center’s train facilities, a rooftop park and streetscape and open‑space projects. Nadia Sasse, director of the Office of Public Finance, told supervisors the resolutions under consideration would allow bond issuances capped at $1.4 billion but that the staff’s working projection of net bond proceeds available for construction was about $806 million under current assumptions.

Scott Boulay of the Transbay Joint Powers Authority outlined how the CFD fits with other funding sources for the downtown rail extension (DTX), which would bring Caltrain and future high‑speed rail into the new transit center. “There are 19 buildings that are underway in the Transit Center district plan…