San Francisco board upholds EIR for Hunters Point redevelopment despite appeals over cleanup, bridge and displacement

The San Francisco Board of Supervisors voted late Tuesday night to affirm the planning commission’s certification of the final environmental impact report (EIR) for the Candlestick Point–Hunters Point Shipyard Phase 2 redevelopment, rejecting appeals from environmental and community groups that urged more study of contamination, public-health risks and a proposed transit bridge across Yosemite Slough.

The 8–3 vote followed more than 12 hours of public comment and technical testimony from city staff, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, independent scientists and dozens of community speakers. Supporters said the project will bring jobs, parks and thousands of new homes; opponents said gaps in analysis and remaining cleanup choices — particularly on Parcel E2, a capped landfill — require postponing approval.

Why it matters: The project would remake roughly 700 acres of San Francisco’s southeastern waterfront, create thousands of construction and long-term jobs and deliver more than 3,000 below-market-rate and market-rate homes under the redevelopment plan. It is also the single biggest redevelopment effort proposed in the city in decades, and it lies atop a former naval shipyard that is a Superfund site with known contamination and legacy radiological and industrial wastes.

What the board decided: The board affirmed the EIR as adequate under the California Environmental Quality Act and sent the redevelopment plan amendments forward for additional votes and related ancillary approvals. Supervisors who supported certification said the EIR and the record show regulators and the Navy…