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Board certifies Bicycle Transportation Plan EIR; related ordinances advanced for first reading
Summary
After hearing appeals challenging the adequacy of the Bicycle Plan EIR, the Board of Supervisors certified the environmental review and advanced two implementing ordinances related to the Bicycle Transportation Plan on first reading.
The Board of Supervisors certified the Final Environmental Impact Report (EIR) for the 2009 San Francisco Bicycle Transportation Plan after public comment and a consolidated appeal. The board voted to certify the EIR (item 19) and then moved ordinances amending the planning code and adopting the bicycle plan and related general plan amendments to first reading (items 22 and 23).
Appellants raised several technical challenges to the EIR's methodology, contending the project description was segmented and that cumulative impacts, baselines and feasible alternatives were not adequately analyzed. Coalition for Adequate Review and other opponents argued the EIR omitted a full analysis of long‑term changes, changes to traffic patterns and impacts on transit operations.
SFMTA staff, planning department analysts and bicycle advocates said the EIR was prepared over multiple years with substantial public outreach, data collection and alternatives analysis. SFMTA deputy director Amit Ghosh told supervisors the agency sought to produce a thorough and defensible EIR following a court order requiring environmental review of the plan.
The board certified the EIR by roll call and then approved first reading of the related general plan and code changes. The general plan ordinance and planning code amendment were introduced with technical adjustments recommended by the city attorney and by planning staff; the code changes remove duplicate enforcement language and the general plan ordinance incorporates environmental findings.
Several neighborhood speakers requested additional local review of a Second Street design variant; SFMTA staff and the Bicycle Coalition committed to continue local meetings on Second Street design details. Advocates for the plan urged supervisors not to delay certification, saying the EIR and outreach process had run for years and the city needs a policy framework to expand safe bicycling.
Ending: The EIR certification allows the city to continue implementation steps, but SFMTA and neighborhood groups agreed to continue local design work on specific corridors before final construction designs are implemented.
