SFPUC approves interagency cooperation agreement and CEQA findings for Candlestick Point/Hunters Point redevelopment

The San Francisco Public Utilities Commission voted to approve an interagency cooperation agreement and the CEQA findings for the Candlestick Point and Hunters Point Shipyard Phase 2 redevelopment after a prolonged presentation by city staff, the developer and consultants and a lengthy public comment period. The action authorizes the agreements and the mitigation monitoring and reporting program described in the staff packet and accompanies project approvals to be forwarded to the Board of Supervisors.

Staff and the project team told commissioners the project covers roughly 700 acres in the southeastern sector and envisions about 10,500 housing units, roughly 32% of which will be below-market-rate. The infrastructure plan presented to the commission includes separate potable and recycled-water distribution networks, a separated stormwater system with low-impact development (LID) street and park treatments, and sanitary sewer collection designed to allow either conveyance to the city’s Southeast treatment plant or future decentralized treatment should policy direct that choice.

“From full build-out we are proposing to send 1 MGD of wastewater to the Southeast plant and to take out approximately 64 MGD of stormwater during a five-year storm event,” said Jean Rogers of ARUP, one of the project’s consulting teams, explaining the mitigation calculation that supports the CEQA measure to avoid a net increase in peak wet-weather flows to Southeast. Staff and consultants emphasized that separating stormwater from sanitary flows and deploying LID measures and on-site retention are the primary strategies to meet the mitigation requirement.

Commissioners pressed staff about the technical and operational implications of the proposal, including who would own and maintain LID features, where recycled water would originate, and whether on-site (distributed) wastewater treatment remains an option. Project consultants said they had modeled a range of wastewater solutions — from sending flows to Southeast to local membrane bioreactors and other on-site options — and that availability of reclaimed water strongly affects the feasibility and sustainability of decentralized options. Staff repeatedly said the final choice of wastewater treatment and financing remains a PUC decision and would require further technical analysis and environmental review if pursued.

Public commenters were split. Supporters representing neighborhood advisory committees, workforce groups and business organizations urged approval, citing local jobs, housing and park benefits. Several residents and environmental groups urged caution, raising cleanup and health concerns about residual contamination at portions of the shipyard. “This is a Superfund site,” said Francisco DeCosta during public comment, urging strict cleanup standards and robust oversight. Health department staff and other city environmental reviewers said the parcels proposed for transfer have been reviewed and that transfer parcels will be certified for their intended uses; they also described long-term cover and monitoring requirements for areas with residual metals.

Commissioners who supported the action cited the stormwater reduction strategy as a major environmental benefit and stressed that permit compliance, mitigation monitoring and operations-and-maintenance plans will be essential as individual phases come forward. The motion to adopt the CEQA findings and approve the interagency cooperation agreement was moved and seconded and carried.

Next steps: the agreements and CEQA certification will be forwarded to the Board of Supervisors and other city agencies as required. Staff said horizontal construction for the first major phases is expected to begin when entitlements and financing align (staff estimated early horizontal construction around late 2011 in the presentation), and that the PUC will return with more detailed analyses — including options for decentralized wastewater treatment and refined recycled-water sourcing — as the project advances.